The Snake Brothers

Jan Prušinovský was able to shoot a drama that realistically captures the Czech social present through authentic locations and believable characters, without manipulating or emotionally blackmailing anyone. If all serious Czech filmmaking reached at least three quarters of this level, we would be doing great. The actors are excellent, the film is very high quality both technically and in terms of its craft, and the directing is top-notch. (02/17/2015)

The Snake Brothers is excellently performed and realistic in terms of the characters’ psychology. But I have a problem with the central motif of friendship, damaged by a single event, and with the last scene of the film, which defines its message. I can’t explain this problem without a SPOILER: since the film is based on one big idea about friendship… he shouldn’t have been mad at him for ending up alone “there”, and he shouldn’t even have mentioned him as a participant in the event. (02/26/2015)

I finally saw a Czech film that I really liked, that entertained me, and that I watched with the urge to know how it would end. This is mainly because the Hádek brothers are absolutely great in the film. The screenplay isn't surprising, but it's good and effectively captures the Czech reality it focuses on, but the Hádek brothers carry it. (01/19/2017)

It’s great that someone tried to look this social snake in the eye with similar straightforwardness as Petr Václav. It's great that both Hádek’s act on a level better than usual, and in particular Kryštof gives the best performance of his career. It's great that Prušinovský captured a whole range of fatal banalities with all the embarrassment, hopelessness and, most importantly, without dissection and the effort to make it into lustful fun. Less great is that The Snake Brothers feels like a social drama without a face, which juggles filming methods all the time without finding a clear concept and a clear identity. It’s downright bad that the first 20 minutes feel like a song in which all the instruments play a semitone falsely (even the otherwise accurate Kryštof is less so). And it’s very contradictory that the double conclusion (shocker / ambivalent view) feels more helpless than burdensome, as if the creators were not familiar with the very vital characters of the council. As a result, the flowers in the background music sound much more suggestive than the film. I understand hype and satisfaction, but I have a feeling that this snake should be able to enchant Karlovy Vary, while on the festival circuit its ambivalence will be a considerable limit. Which is a shame, because the substitution of the gambler with iron and organized crime by robbing cottages is brave and complete. If I wanted to be consistent, I should give **** (I gave them to Sláma for the similarly unbalanced Four Suns and Jiráský got one star less for the weaker Flower Buds). But there are enough people who will give them to Prušinovský for me. [65%] (02/19/2015)

At times not entirely convincing, with characters acting purposefully to artificially suggest a dramatic plot, but in individual details such as the realistic dialogues, the emotional effect, or the performances of everyone on set, this is an auteur work of transcendent stature. Prušinovský has a good understanding of the ordeals and needs of the lower social classes and fits the purely cinematic story of two different and troubled brothers to them without unnecessary sentimentality and softness. Carry on… (11/26/2015)