Cinema
All My Good Countrymen
Všichni dobří rodáci
Vojtěch Jasný · 1969
Synopsis
In a village in Moravia, from May 1945, seven friends see their lives overturned by the arrival of communist rule. The seizure of power, the confiscations and the forced collectivisation of land strike these men, who have known each other all their lives, one after another; the village divides, and each must choose between his land, his convictions and his security.
Context
The director had been gathering the material for this film since 1946; it is set in his native village. He brought together a large cast around Radoslav Brzobohatý, with Vlastimil Brodský, Vladimír Menšík and Waldemar Matuška. Completed in 1968, the film evokes February 1948, the nationalisation of peasant property, the birth of the cooperatives and the political trials; after the invasion, it made its author persona non grata and was locked away in the vault, though it later circulated on hundreds of cassettes.
Who it is for
A poetic chronicle in tableaux rather than a continuous narrative, with a vast gallery of characters.
Prizes and reception
Best Director Award at Cannes in 1969, shared with Glauber Rocha; a Trilobit for its director in 1968.