In the Shadow

Very solid. The atmosphere is excellent, dark and depressing, and thanks to the perfect sets, the tense 50s are literally palpable in every shot. The story unfolds like many classic crime thrillers and can't really surprise with anything, but the execution is almost flawless, from the cinematography, the aforementioned "rainy" atmosphere, the continuity of the twists and turns to the excellent performances. Ivan Trojan excels, confirming his reputation as the best Czech actor of our time, and much of the film relies on his heartfelt performance. Something similar can be said of Sebastian Koch, whose Major Zenke may not talk much, but he has charisma to spare. It's not a five-star treat, the story is still very hackneyed and lacking in emotion, but it has at least significantly restored my pride in Czech cinema after a long time. 80% (21/12/2012)

I gave it four stars at first because I’m happy about every Czech film that isn’t bad, and In the Shadow is not a bad film. The problem is that it’s not the good detective film that it wants to be most of the time. It works mostly on a dramatic level, but the unnecessarily complicated, confusing and vaguely narrated level of the detective investigation bothered me in the cinema. I didn’t get exactly the who, what, how and why… Technically speaking, it’s comparable to the European competition, which is good. What Czech cinema is missing the most today are good screenwriters. (27/09/2012)

Actually, this could have been a very good retro detective film with stunning visuals and imaginative intermingling of music and image (Ondříček successfully followed in the traditions of Protector and Walking Too Fast, which started this "phenomenon" in Czech cinema). Nonetheless, this is a story from the 1950s, so any rationalization of the investigation is only favorable until the point when it appeals to the comrades themselves. And great praise is due to Mr. Ondříček for managing to suitably balance the share of mystery and for the fact that, when all’s said and done, this is really a "political detective thriller" that uses all of its "mystery" solely for the purpose of portraying the nervous and dark atmosphere of the 1950s as faithfully as possible. (24/11/2013)

In the Shadow is a successful dark thriller about an anti-Jewish conspiracy within the communist Czechoslovakia in the alarmed year of 1953. I was pleasantly surprised by how Ondříček civilized the realities - the 1950s are not only an absurdly dark time, but they also have a piece of "Hrabal" proletarianism and building crudeness in them (a great recitation of the poem “Kulak"). There is no point in pretending that this is a decent detective story - after a while it is quite clear that rather than a "whodunit" it is a heated clash between the stubborn captain of the crime squad and the StB. But this is where the film stumbles: even though Koch and Trojan act great and the film has well-written dialogues and holds the tension, in the end it unmasks the most banal clichés about heroism face to face with the "will from above". This happens at the cost of screenwriting grand circles and unrealistic solutions (in relation to the family, but also in relation to the entire monster trial with the Jewish community), and unfortunately, also the quite vague motivations of the characters (there is a complete level missing that would deal with the fact that both protagonists married "squids" and especially Captain Hakl can't be as angelically pure and principled as he looks in the film) and leads to an awkward heroic gesture at the end. In other words, realism and drama are overshadowed by noble morality about the heroes who revolted - instead of a layered film, we watch a trivial chess game with constructs at its core. It’s really too bad - the description of the environment reveals that there was much more going on. And finally: why does guiding music have to play during 90% of the runtime in every similar film? For God's sake, let the audience think and feel for themselves. (04/09/2012)

I decided to go to the cinema to see In the Shadow because I believe such efforts at good filmmaking simply deserve my money. It surprised me that David Ondříček was able to make such a great film. The actors were amazing. I have to praise Sebastian Koch, who had the desire to star in a Czech film. He definitely succeeded. Still, I must not forget Ivan Trojan in the leading role, who was absolutely amazing. But the others were good as well. And even though they only appeared in the film for a few scenes, it was a pleasure to see them, whether it was Martin Myšička, Miroslav Krobot, Simona Babčáková or Jiří Štěpnička. As for the story, I admit that I was expecting a complicated riddle with an interesting ending. But the essence is far simpler than you would expect. Nevertheless, for the great atmosphere of the fifties, the landscape and the set designs, which I still don’t understand where the filmmakers found them, and especially how they managed to adapt them so well, but also for the great production... this film simply deserves the attention. (03/10/2012)