Kdyby...

If a young film school student had made a similar show and I had watched it as part of the Night of Film Hopes, I would easily give it four stars for the idea and execution, considering the technical limitations, minimal budget, and lack of experience. However, if such a production is served to me as a professional documentary on the national TV station, I have to have several fundamental reservations. Documentary fiction enriched with dramatized passages is a long-used and popular format, primarily mastered by the BBC. The work that comes from their workshop is truly smart and often top-notch. The problem is that this film cannot be said to be anything of the sort, even by a long shot. The dramatized passages are trash in terms of both acting and script, and the whole thing reeks of dreadful cheapness. Couldn’t they find more interesting and appropriate archival materials? Couldn't any exterior scene be directed? Did the military commanders really have to speak so stiffly? One star is for the idea, and the second is for the attempt to predict the course of events in a logical and historically substantiated way. Overall impression: 35%. (11/14/2008)