Němá barikáda / Silent Barricade

Nema barikada. A surprise on a captured Nazi train: concentration camp survivors.

Nema barikada. Resistance is organized.

Nema barikada. Halina the Auschwitz survivor (Barbara Drapińska) bids farewell to the fatally wounded resistance veteran (Robert Vrchota) whose legs are broken.

Mykkä barrikaadi / Den stumma barrikaden. CS 1949. Year of production: 1948 (data on print). PC: Československý Státní Film. P: Frantisek Milic. D: Otakar Vávra. SC: Jan Drda, Otakar Vávra – based on a story by Jan Drda. CIN: Václav Huňka. AD: Jan Zázvorka. M: Jiří Srnka. Orchestra: Filmový Symfonický Orchestr, conductor: Milivoj Uzelac. S: Emil Poledník. ED: Antonín Zelenka.
    C: Jaroslav Průcha (locksmith Hošek), Barbara Drapińska (Halina, Auschwitz survivor), Jaroslav Marvan (strážník / policeman Brůček), Vladimír Šmeral (Kroupa), Marie Vášová (Nedvědová), Jiří Plachý st. (uhlíř / collier), Robert Vrchota (četař / sergeant), Jaromír Spal (průvodčí / guard), Jaroslav Zrotal (idič tramvaje / tram driver), Eva Karelová (tramvajačka / tram conductor), Jaroslava Panenková (Hošková), Jaroslav Mareš (Jarda Nedvěd), Antonín Šůra (Pepík Hošek), Vítězslav Boček (barikádník Kouba), J. O. Martin, Běla Jurdová, Miroslav Homola (záškodník / saboteur Walter), Marie Rýdlová (stará Němka, Waltrova matka / old German woman, Walter's mother), Václav Švorc (mladík / young boy Bengál), Josef Bek (poručík / lieutenant Československé armády), Štěpán Bulejko, Vladimír Hlavatý, Ljuba Skořepová (pekařova žena / baker's wife, baker woman), Karel Pech, Vladimír Řepa, Libuše Freslová, Miloš Nedbal (major Československé armády), Vlasta Vlasáková, Vladimír Ráž, Radovan Lukavský (německý voják / German soldier), Zdeněk Kryzánek, Emil Kavan, Karel Pavlík, Oldřich Lukeš, Viktor Očásek, Věra Kalendová, Josef Chvalina, Emil Bolek, Ella Nollová, František Marek, Rudolf Široký, Jaroslav Seník, Zdeněk Řehoř, Marie Blažková, Ladislav Hájek, Anna Kadeřábková, Jan Brandýs.
    Loc: Prague. Studio: Atelier Hostivar (Prague).
    VET 33543 – 95 min, 113 min, 128 min
    A 35 mm print from Národni filmový archiv (Prague) with English subtitles, duration 118 min, viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (a tribute to Jiří Menzel – Otakar Vavra was his teacher at FAMU), 11 Feb 2017

An engrossing war and resistance epic about the Prague Uprising, 5–8 May, 1945. Czechoslovakia is still occupied by Germany. Partisans have been conducting a battle on the rails. There is also a battle for the Czech radio. By the morning of 6 May, over 1000 barricades are erected by the resistance movement. The Waffen-SS launches heavy tank fire on the city, and there are Luftwaffe air raids. The German Surrender Act is signed on 8 May. The Red Army arrives on 9 May.

There is a newsreel prologue. Berlin has fallen, but remnants of Field Marshal Schörner's army still keep fighting, proceeding from the East towards Prague. Czechoslovakia is the last stronghold of of armed Nazism. Prague is to be destroyed. The Czech underground resistance movement fights to save Prague from the advancing troops and destruction.

Silent Barricade is an impressive contribution to the cinema of resistance and liberation. The opening montages of the last days of WWII and Czech resistance are striking. There is a long tracking shot of Czechs removing German signs from the streets of Prague. There are also humoristic vignettes of turncoats who keep changing the badges on their lapels.

There is a general feeling of joy, but fighting goes on, and as a tram is proceeding towards the Troja Bridge several civilians are shot by advancing Germans. A woman dies in her lover's arms. The tram is overturned, and it becomes the starting point for a barricade on the bridge. The locksmith Hošek opens a cache of rifles under his floor.

Otakar Vavra has a solid grip on the action sequences. They seem real and feel exciting. There is a resistance sequence at the railway yard. The engine driver deserts a Nazi train with his engine. The resistance fighters take possession of the arsenal on the train, but in further cars they also discover concentration camp survivors in their striped clothes (see image above).

Although Halina (Barbara Drapińska), one of the survivors, is exhausted, she joins the fight immediately, killing a Nazi with a hand grenade and confiscating his machine gun. Having gotten shelter at Hošek's home she cries in her sleep. The family notices the tattoed number on her arm. Having rested she dresses in overalls and becomes one of the leading fighters.

There is a lively sequence at an air raid shelter. The resistance movement engages everybody to contribute to the fight. Even the owner of the apartment block joins, reluctantly at first, but with growing enthusiasm. The account of unanimité, solidarity, what we in Finland call talkoot (a working bee) is engaging.

A new perspective on things is provided by the sniper sequence. A hidden sniper is killing people from an apartment block that is supposedly vacated. Halina rises onto the rooftop of the house, and we get a panoramic view of the fighting city. The sniper Walter is found by Halina hiding in an old woman's closet. Walter is her son.

German tanks are approaching. Hošek has forbidden his 15-year old son Pepik to join the fight, but Pepik sneaks into a group crossing the Vltava river to the other side of the bridge to stop the tanks. Two Panzerfaust strikes fail, but Pepik succeeds in destroying the tank with his Panzerfaust – and gets to feel its mighty recoil.

After a reconnaissance visit and a mendacious promise of cease-fire the Nazis start seriously to destroy Prague with their artillery. There is an exciting human shield sequence at the bridge. Just when it seems that everything is lost the people of the human shield desert to their own side and join the fight against the Nazis.

London is dancing on V Day but Czechs are still fighting Nazis with their last bullets. Finally Germans retreat. Halina observes lilacs blossoming in Prague. The next day the Red Army arrives in Prague and is celebrated with a liberators' welcome.

Silent Barricade is a Stalin era film with the resulting emphases. From the complexity of events the contribution of the anti-communist Russian Liberation Army is eliminated. The film needs to be analyzed critically. But there is an undeniable authentic spirit in the film which seems to include documentary inserts. Silent Barricade has been made with a similar feeling of inspiration as the classics of Italian neorealism. It is impossible to notice the seam between fiction and non-fiction. It would be interesting to study a text critical analysis of different versions of Silent Barricade. The print we saw was not one of the shortest, but the official duration is ten minutes longer.

The affinity to Menzel might be seen in Vavra's sense of humour and his never losing a human perspective. It is also interesting to observe than in this epic film without a conventional identification structure the person who comes closest to being the main protagonist is a woman: Halina the Polish Auschwitz survivor who turns into a liberation fighter. The actress Barbara Drapińska had recently played a main role in Wanda Jakubowska's The Last Stage. The keynote to her performance is survivor instinct. Halina's spirit has not been crushed, and she seems to belong to the special class of war veterans who have developed a sixth sense about danger.

The print is good enough and very watchable.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: OUR PROGRAM NOTE BY JARI SEDERGREN
BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: OUR PROGRAM NOTE BY JARI SEDERGREN

Neljän erilaisen hallinnon alla töitä tehnyt Otakar Vávra (1911–2011) oli Prahan legendaarisen elokuvakoulun FAMUn opettajia. Yksi oppilaista oli Jiří Menzel. Mykkä barrikaadi on Vavrán ohjaama, vuonna 1949 valmistunut tsekkoslovakialainen sotaelokuva Prahan kapinasta.

Toisen maailmansodan loppuvaiheisiin sijoittuva elokuva, joka valmistuspaikka oli Atelier Hostivar Prahassa, perustui Jan Drdan menestysromaaniin.

Kertomuksen ytimessä ovat tavalliset prahalaiset, jotka organisoivat vastarintaa kaupunkiin silloin kun saksalaisten perääntymistä turvaamaan saapuu sotavoimaltaan ylivoimainen saksalainen SS-panssaridivisioona. Keskeinen tapahtumapaikka on Prahan Trojassa, jossa barrikadeja rakennetaan strategisesti tärkeälle sillalle.

Elokuvan ajatuksellinen painopiste on kansalaisrohkeudessa, tavassa jolla tavalliset kaupunkilaiset ottavat vastuuta aseellisen kapinan muodossa, vaikka heidän mahdollisuutensa selvitä taistelussa menestyksellä ovat selvästi rajatut. Elokuvan toimijoiden psykologisointi on toteutettu karkealla kädellä. Rohkeus saa nimittäin rinnalleen pelkuruuden tavalla, joka epäilemättä – varsinkin sodan olosuhteet huomioon ottaen – yksinkertaistaa näitä piirteitä turhan selkeästi kunkin yksilön henkilökohtaisiin ominaisuuksiin. Sodan olosuhteissa asiat ovat kuitenkin usein monimutkaisempia.

Vastaavaa liioittelua yksinkertaisen idealisoinnin hengessä tehdään elokuvassa myös silloin, kun kuvattavana on puna-armeijan saapuminen voittajana kaupunkiin. Vuoden 1949 Tsekkoslovakiassa tätä näkemystä ei varmaankaan voinut välttää, sillä valtio oli juuri saatettu Neuvostoliiton suoraan vaikutuspiiriin.

Näistä kärjistyksistä huolimatta kokonaisuutta on arvostettava realismistaan, jota 1940-luvun loppuun mennessä ei sotaelokuvissa juuri ollut nähty. Elokuvaa katsoessa voi myös miettiä, olivatko tämänkaltaiset populaariviihteen tai miksei myös taiteen menestykset itäisessä keski-Euroopassa kokemuksellista taustaa kapinoille, joita reaalisosialismin keskelle 1950- ja 1960-luvulla silloin tällöin syntyi.

– Jari Sedergren 11.2.2017