Romeo, Juliet and Darkness (1960)

Romeo, Juliet and Darkness • Romeo, Julia a tma (1960)

Genre:Drama
Director: Jirí Weiss
Starring:Ivan Mistrík, Daniela Smutná, Jirina Sejbalová, Frantisek Smolík
Language: Czech
Duration: 92 min.
Rating: 6.7 

Summary:

A young man shelters a fugitive Jewish girl in the attic of his apartment building during the brutal 1942 Nazi occupation of Prague, becoming her only link to the outside world. Fear, anxiety and suspicion soon turn into gratitude and love between them.

Romeo, Juliet and Darkness is a film directed by Jirí Weiss.  It premiered at the 1960 San Sebastián Film Festival, winning the Golden Seashell.

Set in Prague in the spring of 1942 during the Nazi occupation, the film follows Pavel (Ivan Mistrík) a young student who lives with his mother and grandfather in an apartment complex.  As the entire Jewish population has just been ordered to be transported to concentration camps including Pavel's neighbors the Wurms, Hanka (Daniela Smutná) a young Jewish woman hoping to stay with them, arrives too late.  By chance she runs into Pavel, and in a display of sympathy he hides her from the authorities in an attic storeroom.

It's a well directed and acted film, with an intriguing take on the Anne Frank story, but it's a rather straightforward and predictable screenplay with no surprises, and any potential drama is overshadowed by the inevitable tragedy heralded by the film's title.  An interesting but not essential watch, perhaps this would have been more powerful and relevant when it came out, but it feels a bit dated and the poor quality print used on the available DVD doesn't help.

— Bonjour Tristesse