When I went to see this film in the cinema I thought: “What can I expect from directors Sverak and Sverak jr.? Quality, a pleasant spectacle...” but this movie went beyond my expectations. I had a wonderful time and 2 hours in the cinema passed incredibly quickly. The main roles are played by actors who won't disappoint you: Ondrej Vetchy, Jan Triska, Oldrich Kaiser, Zdenek Sverak and for me lately favourite actress Tereza Voriskova.
The story takes place in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
Soucek family is forced to move out to the countryside to stay with their relatives, where little Eda (Soucek's son) previously spent a vacation. Eda does not have much luck on making new friends and with his urban thinking and way of life, he struggles to find a place among the country boys. In parallel comes to the surface problems of his parents and so at the same time each family member is looking for courage in decisions, which they did in those sad times of war.
This is a 6th film of the family couple Svěrák and Svěrák jr.
The consistency of both gentlemen is noticeable. Compared to the book, according to which the film was made, there are significant changes, but it certainly is not a detriment of the whole work. Zdenek Sverak wrote for the film only dialogues and so his son Jan had a difficult task to remake these dialogues so as to not disturb the humor of his father. In my opinion, everything is excellent and the film will surely belong among the Czech classics as well as The Elementary School.
If I were to give points, I would definitely give this Czech film 9 out of 10.