Sousto
Plots(1)
The World War Two is about to end. A train with concentration camp prisoners is standing in a station. Three exhausted men scheme how to get to a nearby carriage loaded with bread. If the calculations are right, they have 57 seconds to get it. Running and not being noticed while doing so is an impossible task for a malnutrished person, yet it may be the only way to survival. A studen film of Jan Němec based on a short story by Arnošt Lustig. (Prague Short Film Festival)
(more)Reviews (2)
Hats off - considering that Jan Němec made this film as a student project, it is an excellent piece that has no equal when compared to the projects of today's film school students, which I have the chance to see during the Night of Film Hopes. It is a brilliant minimalist study of human fear, the desire to survive, courage, and self-sacrifice. Ten minutes packed with such emotions are rarely seen. The black-and-white imagery only enhances the rawness of the setting and the depressing atmosphere. Overall impression: 90%.
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I am extremely disgusted with the realization of the continuation of the generational alternation of the likes of Wasserman and Němec, but as a seed it is decent. It’s also a good choice from Lustig’s works. If Němec had not resisted this and had not resorted to his mannerisms, he would have been a better man.
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