I saw this at last month's 2011 Palm Springs International Film Festival. This was the Czech Republic's official submission to the 83rd Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Pavel (Martin Huba) is set to receive an award to commemorate his contributions to freedom as a dissident during the Dubcek era. His son-in-law Ludek (Milan Mikulcik) is part of a documentary film crew making a film about Pavel's life. Ludek, meantime, is cheating on his wife Lucie (Lenika Vlaskova), Pavel's daughter, who has been battling a form of cancer. Ludek's affair is with Radka (Petra Hrebickova) who is part of the documentary film crew. In making the film, Ludek has stumbled upon some information that may implicate that Pavel was giving information to the secret police to silence a romantic adversary. Pavel's wife Jana (Daniella Kolarova had been lovers with the sculptor Borek (Antonin Kratochuil) who was forced to flee his country to live in exile in Sweden and has taken in a Japanese painter named Mr. Kawasaki (Isao Onoda). This story sounds like a soap opera and it kind of is but it's a little more intriguing and sophisticated than that. A great ensemble cast gives some wonderful performances. With Ladsislav Chudik as the menacing unrepentant ex-secret police investigator Kafka. Written by Petr Jarchovsky and directed by Jan Hrebejk I would recommend this and give it a 7.5 out of 10.
Review of Kawasakiho ruze
