Zelary

There's a grinding predictability to this handsome, 2003 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee from the Czech Republic, and the fact that it's based on a true story doesn't make it feel any less trite. It's the early 1940s, and sophisticated urbanite Eliska (Ana Geislerova), who once planned to become a doctor, now works as a nurse in a large Czechoslovakian hospital. The ever-expanding Third Reich put an end to Eliska's original career plans when they closed the universities, but her sense of duty to her fellow Czechs endured: Eliska and her lover, Richard (Ivan Trojan), are both actively involved with the resistance movement. That, too, comes to an end with a fr...