The Entreaty

Did anyone notice that the film is about the eternal struggle of Good against Evil? But seriously, this film won't dazzle the demanding viewer with the complexity of expressed thoughts, but rather with how it can convey them to the viewer - through an exceptional merging of content and form. This is something that is one of the greatest strengths of a work of art. The photogenic and unreal landscape, especially for a Central European, provides ideal material for this purpose: towering mountains and proud rocky peaks as counterparts to equally proud heroes, around whom both stories revolve; the purity and mountain sun as a mirror of an immaculate Virgin, the harsh yet real and honorable life of mountaineers compared to the pettiness and vanity of people from the plains below them. Add to that the excellent play of contrasts of the black and white camera - the devil balancing on the edge of darkness and daylight, a funeral scene where the characters emerge plastically from the encompassing darkness, reminding us of the rarity and brevity of life. (10/16/2013)