Reviews

Following similar themes as "Cold Mountain" this official Oscar submission from the Czech Republic is a masterful war time drama with a great heart. Heart-breaking and warm, it carries those themes to a much richer conclusion than "Cold Mountain" was able to. if this film is not one of the Foreign Language film nominees then something is clearly amiss. See it!

Beautifully bleak and sweetly viscous, this tale of looming doom set near an atomic bomb test site touches the exposed nerves of the early 50's paranoia and fear. A kind of twisted take on Hitchcock's "Lifeboat" the desparate characters are placed in a desert ghost town with the explosive clock ticking. There is a charged atmosphere and undertow of sadistic sexuality that hangs about many of the scenes.