Line #17 Film/Zelary


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zelary_movie_poster_2003_1020257906.jpg]]
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3	''Želary'' is a 2003 film from the Czech Republic, directed by Ondřej Trojan.
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5	1943, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia--in other words, the Czech half of Czechoslovakia, under occupation by the Nazis. Eliška is a nurse (she was a med student before the medical school closed) in Prague. She works alongside Richard, a surgeon, who is also her lover. When Eliška and Richard aren't having sex or working in the hospital, they are members of the Czech resistance.
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7	One night Richard is called in to operate on Joza, a sawmill worker from the countryside who has been badly wounded in an accident at the mill. They save him, thanks in part to Eliška donating some blood.
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9	Soon after, Eliška is sent to deliver a letter for LaResistance, only to find the Gestapo crawling all over the apartment building where she was supposed to meet her contact. She narrowly avoids arrest, then returns only for her Resistance contact Slávek to tell her that their Resistance cell has been broken by the Gestapo. Richard has fled the Protectorate, and Eliška must leave as well, immediately. He gives her false papers and a new identity with the fake name of "Hana", and tells her that she must leave Prague for the countryside, in the company of Joza the mill worker. As his wife.
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12	!!Tropes:
13	* TheAlcoholic: Michal, Lipka's abusive step-father, is constantly seen with a bottle of schnaps in his hand.
14	* BitchSlap: When arriving at the scene of Lipka's mother bleeding from miscarriage, Lucka the healer is thoroughly disgusted by the scene. When she discovers that the mother is in fact dying, she turns and gives Michal, who was too intoxicated to even call for help, four of these. He is so drunk and shamed that he can only collapse on the floor in response.
15	* ConspicuousTrenchcoat: The Gestapo agent whom Eliška encounters on the stairs is "Gestapo agent" to a T, with a leather trenchcoat and a fedora. He even greets her in German with "''Guten morgen''." Of course, the Gestapo is searching the apartment building so they have no need for stealth.
16	* DeadGuyOnDisplay: A German specialty. Eliška sees a squad of Nazis forcing a terrified woman through the forest at gunpoint. She then sees a burnt-out cottage, turns, and sees the bodies of a man and two boys hanging from a tree.
17	* DistantFinale: At least ten years later (judging by the make of the car) Eliška returns to the village, once again with Richard. The old cottage she shared with Joza is now a crumbling ruin, but she's happy to find Lucka the midwife still alive, and they laugh together as the film ends.
18	* FishOutOfWater: Eliška--tall, good-looking, fashionably dressed, city girl--does not fit in very well in Želary where most of the women are short and squat and all the townspeople are simply-dressed peasants. She's further thrown for a loop when Joza takes her home to a cottage that has neither electricity nor indoor plumbing.
19	* GraveMarkingScene: Joza tells Eliška, "I'd like to show you to my mother. I'd like to tell her I'm married." Eliška is caught by surprise, and she's probably surprised again in the next scene when they are visiting his mother's grave.
20	* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: When a pair of Soviet soldiers make ruckus when they discover the hiding teacher in front of the church, the priest comes to investigate and one of the soldiers proceeds to instantly shoot him. The other soldier promptly scolds him for that.
21	* InTheBack: Young Gorčík ends up getting shot in the back while watching the attempted rape of Žeňa he set up. The Soviet soldier who does manage to successfully rape her later also gets shot in the back.
22	* INeedAFreakingDrink: The local fascist militia comes by one day to register "Hana" as a new citizen of the village. They check her (fake) documents, give her a ration book, and leave politely. After they're gone she takes a long pull from the bottle of vodka on the table.
23	* KilledOffscreen: Slávek is mentioned to have been caught and executed by the Nazis for his work for the Czech Resistance.
24	* LethalChef: Eliška makes Joza some sort of unappetizing potato mash concoction, then sheepisly says "I'm not used to the stove." Joza dutifully eats some, then puts some down for the dog--and the dog takes a pass.
25	* MarriageBeforeRomance: Joza and Eliška, total strangers to each other, get married because Eliška needs a place to hide immediately. Naturally, they fall in love.
26	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: When Michal attempts to rape Eliška at the sawmill, Joza promptly attacks him, breaks his arm and is only stopped from harming him any further when some three men proceed to restrain him.
27	* OffingTheOffspring: Old Gorčík shoots his son when the latter sets up the rape of Žeňa by a Soviet soldier.
28	* ThePlace: Želary, Joza's home town, where Eliška is sent on zero notice to live.
29	* RapeAsDrama: The Soviet troops that "liberate" the village get rapey the next morning under the influence of alcohol. A soldier tries to rape Marie, which leads to an outbreak of shooting in the town when Old Gorčík shoots him; another soldier does rape Žeňa.
30	* LaResistance: Only in the opening scenes, in which Eliška attempts to deliver a letter for the Resistance only to nearly get arrested. The rest of the film has her living under false papers in the countryside, as a mill worker's wife.
31	* ShotgunWedding: An unusual spin on this trope. Eliška is forced to marry Joza immediately, not because she is pregnant, but because she needs a place to hide from the Gestapo, and there is no other way that the citizens of the village will accept her.
32	* ShowerScene: There's a crude shower in the sawmill, which Eliška uses, in a scene that isn't very sexy as Michal barges in and tries to rape her. Joza saves her and gives Michal a beating.
33	* TableSpace: The awkwardness between Joza and Eliška on their first night at home together is demonstrated when they sit in silence, on opposite sides of the stove.
34	* TemptingFate: As Richard and Slávek are drilling Eliška on security precautions on how to deliver her letter--wait for the sound of the vacuum cleaner, enter at 5:03 exactly--she does a mental eye-roll and says everything is perfectly safe. She tells them "It's getting boring, gentlemen." Then she arrives at the apartment building only to find the Gestapo already in it.
35	* ThereIsOnlyOneBed: There ''is'' only one bed in Joza's cottage, which is why he crawls into it on his and Eliška's second night together, explaining that the bench is uncomfortable. She clutches a pair of scissors under her pillow, but he stays on his side.
36	* TimeSkip: Major time skips from the opening part of the film, spring 1943, to Christmas 1943, then another to the spring of 1945 and the final act as the Red Army arrives.
37	* ToplessnessFromTheBack: Eliška on her first night in Joza's cottage, as she changes for bed. Besides being fanservice it emphasizes her vulnerability, in a strange home with a man she doesn't know.
38	* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: When he defends Žeňa from rape by shootinig his son and the Soviet soldier who cornered her, Old Gorčík causes the Red Army soldiers to think that the Nazis are attacking them, with the ensuing panic causing several other unnecessary deaths.

Context Film / Zelary