Prolific Czech helmer Jan Hrebejk (Divided We Fall) reunites with regular scripter Petr Jarchovský for one of the duo’s most resonant and serious undertakings in Kawasaki’s Rose. Tackling the weighty subject of Czechs coming to terms with their collaborationist past under communism, Hrebejk and Jarchovský never let politics take precedence over characterization, producing an emotionally meaty family drama.
Pavel Josek (Martin Huba), a respected university prof famous
for standing up to the communist regime, is the subject of a TV
docu, though he quietly insists that he doesn’t want to be put on a pedestal. He has a loving, supportive wife, Jana (Daniela Kolárová), and a grown daughter, Lucie (Lenka Vlasáková). But when the TV crew comes across an undoctored file on Pavel’s past, Pavel’s reputation threatens to unravel.
Performances are top notch, from Huba and Kolárová as the husband and wife who retain their dignity even as their past becomes media property, to Anna Simonová as Bara, Lucie’s restless daughter. - Derek Elley, Variety