Všichni dobří rodáci
| All My Compatriots | |
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| Directed by | Vojtěch Jasný |
| Produced by | Jaroslav Jílovec |
| Written by | Vojtěch Jasný |
| Starring | Vlastimil Brodský |
| Music by | Svatopluk Havelka |
| Cinematography | Jaroslav Kučera |
| Edited by | Miroslav Hájek |
| Distributed by | Ústřední půjčovna filmů |
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Release date
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Running time
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114 minutes |
| Country | Czechoslovakia |
| Language | Czech |
All My Compatriots, also known as All My Countrymen (Czech: ''Všichni dobří rodáci''), is a 1968 Czechoslovak film directed by Vojtěch Jasný. Considered the "most Czech" of his contemporary filmmakers, Jasny's style was primarily lyricist. It took nearly 10 years to complete the script and it was his greatest work. The film was banned and the director went into exile rather than recant. It was entered into the 1969 Cannes Film Festival where Jasný won the award for Best Director.
The film begins in 1945 and traces the seasonal or annual changes that a small Moravian village undergoes until the Epilogue, which is sometime after 1958.
(1945) The first part establishes the innocence and camaraderie of a village amidst the backdrop of a post-War landscape. Children play with guns and a land mine is discovered while ploughing the fields. A group of villagers detonate it and end the night dancing and drinking in the local pub. They leave at dawn as the sun rises on a beautiful, idyllic landscape and stop to sleep beneath a tree after taking in the view.
(1948) It is just months after the Communists have taken power in February. Loud speakers blare propaganda and announce rations while the farmer Frantisek works. We discover that four of the main villagers have converted, namely, the organist Ocenas, the photographer Plecmera, the postman Bertin, and Zejvala. The townspeople disdain them. A landowner must vacate his land so it can become a collective; his wife tearfully removes pictures of Jesus and the Virgin Mary from the walls as the landowner criticizes: "I hope you look after this place, your own looks like a pigsty." To which the communists respond ominously: "Don't worry! We will show you what we can do!" The communists greedily inspect their winnings (animals, house, a stockpile of wood) and begin to loot for themselves. Meanwhile, a tailor sets up shop with his wife and the help of friends, who warn him that the communists will put an end to his good fortunes. Indeed, a group of communists come and demand he turn over the property on which he has just spent his life's savings and lead a tailoring collective instead.
(1949) Bertin, the postman, is shot soon after we see him and his wife-to-be, Machačova, being fitted for wedding clothes. A funeral is held after which police arrest those they deem responsible. Frantisek the noble farmer leads a mass of townspeople to demand the police turn over some of the wrongly accused perpetrators, namely the priest. The organist Ocenas, facing death threats, leaves at his wife's persistence. The photographer's wife, aspiring for status and a new house, implores her husband to fill the position left behind by Ocenas.
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Wikipedia