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Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Sony
EAN: 9781404962996
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 1404962999
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: February 08, 2005
Running Time: 148 minutes
Sales Rank: 37912
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 2003
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Product Description:
Eliska a young nurse working at a hospital is carrying on a love affair with richard a surgeon. Theyre members of a secret resistance movement against the nazis. A love triangle ensues when a local resident needs a transfusion. As the gestapo closes in on them lives get lost and changed forever. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 05/13/2008 Run time: 148 minutes Rating: R
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Czech Republic is the Star of this Film
Who has peeked inside Czech Republic since the Oscar winning Kolya? This weekend we rented the movie a recent Czech film, Zelary (rhymes with celery). The Czech Republic is the star; this film really shows her off: the mountains, wildflowers, colors of changing seasons, snow.
Zelary looks back, with nostalgia, on the transition between WW II Gestapo control of the country and the Russian takeover. A short period of time existed between the two regimes. I can only imagine the impetus to make this film was for it to be a cultural reminder to the people of Czech Republic. It asks the big questions: Who are we? Were did we come from? Where might we be going?
Short synopsis from metaphor point-of-view: Female sexuality holds center stage and works as a metaphor for the Czech Republic itself. Within the feminine element the film plays out bigger themes of birth and death, oppression and freedom, tenderness and brutality, fidelity and betrayal, and most provocatively, the urban and rural.
The film begins with an "urban" sex scene set in a modern apartment with streamline furniture, lots of books, records and record player, leather chairs, satin sheets. Eliska, an OR nurse, and Richard, a surgeon, are active in the resistance movement. Both are well educated, well-groomed, wealthy, have attractive bodies lovely undergarments, and all of their teeth. They make love to a jazz recording.
Cut to an hour later when Eliska has sex with a country man, ... Read More
Rating: - Heros and Villans
I rented this film on the basis of a thumb-nail description of the plot. I'm glad that I did because "Zelary" is a quality movie. I had guessed that it was a Serbian film but I'm guessing it is a Slovakian (Czech?) film and that we were looking at rural life in the Carpathian Mountains during WWII. We discover early on that our heroine is knowingly involved in the underground/resistance in Prague. However, she didn't seem to have counted the cost because when something goes wrong, she's wisked away to safety off into the mountains. This was not her idea and she did what she could to reverse her fortune until it was finally spelled out for her. To be able to blend in to the tight mountain community, it is necessary for her to marry an older man she met in a hospital in Prague. That's as far as I dare go into the plot. The events and personalities that emerge from this 2 1/2 hour film make for a very engrossing movie. Naturally the concept of Nazi occupation (these folks are not Germans as they are quick to point out) adds a degree of suspense. The idea that our young heroine is in hiding expands on that suspense. However, there are other sources of suspense, excitement, humor, love, understanding etc. The relationship between the newlyweds naturally takes the forefront of the film. However, the supporting cast is very good and their roles and escapades make for a well-rounded movie.
The ending builds to a crescendo that leaves us rather emotionally drained (we're pretty involved ... Read More
Rating:  - Very satisfying and well directed
As long as there are wars and womenfolk to revere, the feisty spirit of Scarlett O'Hara will never die. The story of a privileged beauty who is transformed by war and sacrifice into a paragon of resilience keeps popping up in film: Catherine Deneuve in Indochine (1992), Sandrine Bonnaire in East-West (1999), Nicole Kidman in last year's Cold Mountain.
Zelary is the Czech version, an old-fashioned character-driven domestic epic which was adapted from an novel by Kveta Legatova. Set in the Second World War against the background of the German occupation, the film was selected as the Czech Republic's Oscar nomination last year. A return to directing for Ondrej Trojan (Let's All Sing Around) after more than a decade as a producer, Zelary is a trite but sturdy offering, a showcase for popular young Czech actress Anna Geislerova, as well as the beautiful Moravian countryside, shot in glowing earthy tones.
Geislerova plays Eliska, a medical student who has been denied a chance to finish her degree because of the German occupation. She works as a nurse, but is also involved in the resistance movement with her lover, a surgeon named Richard (Ivan Trojan). One night a sawmill worker, Joseph (Hungarian actor Gyorgy Cserhalmi), from a rural community is brought into the hospital badly injured. Eliska provides the blood he needs for a transfusion. Shortly after, the Gestapo uncovers the resistance group that Eliska belongs to and she is forced to escape. Joseph, or Jova for short, agrees to ... Read More
Rating: - Love redefined
There are two films I can think of where the marriage theme would give any woman shivers. One is "Queen Margot" and the other "Zelary". "Zelary" story is placed in Chech Republic during WWII. The main female character is helping resistance and before long she is betrayed to Gestapo. To escape certain death, she is hidden in the rural area of the country where no one knows her true identity. To make sure she blends well with the locals, local priest, schoolmaster and her protector decide that the best thing to do in this situation is to marry her off to a local peasant. So here we have a former medical student, sophisticated and raised in the city, forced to marry a man she barely knows who seemingly has nothing in common with her. As time passes by and they get to know each other, they eventually fall in love with each other. I had a little problem with the way their relationship ends (a little bit too convenient for the purposes of the story closure, in my opinion). This is definitely a story of two people so different in every respect who fall in love with each other. It is almost as if the fact that the plot is setup during a WWII is more of a convenient background than anything else.
Rating: - One of the Best
This is simply one of the best movies ever made. It has a beautiful story line, shot ina beautiful place, and unforgettable characters. All around joy and beauty, a fun adventure!
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