User Reviews

Ve stinu aka In the Shadow 2012

An excellent looking production set during 1953 in Stalinist Czechoslovakia.

A Detective with the Police is drawn into what seems to be a simple burglary case. The Detective, Ivan Trojan, roots around and soon comes up with a prime suspect. The man is soon under wraps at the station. Now Trojan finds that the case is anything but simple. The boys from State Security show up and put the grab on the suspect. Trojan is told that the case has already been solved and to stop investigating. Trojan however just can't play along, and soon discovers that there is a big government conspiracy at work.

The Communist Czech Government is planning on currency devaluation even though they are denying this. This action will literally make the savings of Czech citizens worthless. To cover up this action, they are having a series of show trials. The Communists have set up a long con and are framing many of the remaining Jews left in the country. They tell the press that the Jews are smuggling cash and gold out of the country to send to Israel.

Now Trojan happens onto the scene of a post office robbery. There are 4 dead and a large amount of cash is gone. Again, the State Security bunch arrive on site, without even being called. They chase Trojan away and again tell him it is a State matter. Trojan has managed to retrieve a shell casing and a spent bullet from the scene. He tells the Security men nothing about this.

Trojan has the bullet tested and now finds the caliber is only used by State Security agents. What is going on he wonders. Does he stop looking? Of course not, he is a cop of the old school. He had been a cop before the war, and before the Reds took over.

Needless to say, as Trojan still continues to investigate, the bodies continue to pile up. He and his family are now on the receiving end of several less than subtle warnings. The wife is "mugged" and ends up in hospital. Trojan realizes that he is being followed. In the mix here is former German SS Officer, Sebastian Koch. Koch is now working for his Soviet captors on the case. He is helping set up the so called Zionist plot to smuggle currency. He is doing this because he was offered a return home to Germany.

The viewer can see that the warnings etc are not going to have the desired result with Trojan. The man is bound and determined to find the real reasons for the murders, robberies and show trials. It will be the death of him.

While there are a few plot holes in the story, the look and feel of the film is top-flight. The dark streets, rain, dingy settings are all put to good use by the director, David Ondrícek. The cinematography by, Adam Sikora, is simply awe inspiring. It is noir through and through. The cast is all excellent as well, with Trojan shining as the world weary type who just cannot let go.

Well worth a look. The film was an entry for Oscar nods, though it was not actually nominated.

If a movie starts off with a burglary in the middle of a rainy night, it must be film noir. So it is with Ve Stínu (In the Shadow), the Czech Republic's entry for Hollywood's 2012 foreign language Oscar. It's the story of an honest cop fighting the system, only instead of being tossed into the meat grinder of Stalinist Czechoslovakia, he willingly walks into it.

The year is 1953 and there are rumors about a currency devaluation, which the government denies. Of course, the film ends with the devaluation and disillusioned people tossing their worthless money out the windows. But before we get there, Captain Hakl has a huge problem.

His investigation of the burglary turns up a conspiracy by the police, state security and the Soviet Union to discredit what Jews are left in the country after the Holocaust. Adding insult to injury, the case is taken over by a captive ex-SS officer named Zenke with orders to stand before a show trial and declare that the Jews are engaged in supporting "Zionist terrorism". For that, he can go home. Otherwise, it's back to Siberia, never to see his family again. Hakl, who neglects his own family as the case progresses, preys on Zenke's conscience. What, six million weren't enough?

In the end, Zenke does what he's told and is allowed to go home with evidence that Hakl secretly gave him proving the innocence of the Jews. (The phone call to stop him comes just seconds after he crosses the border. Who would've guessed it?) All that's left is to take the good captain to the basement and beat him to a bloody pulp before dispatching him. The last scene shows his young son, fresh from dad's funeral, threatening two bullies in the street. The face that stares into the camera reassures the viewer that, yes, the fight for truth and justice will go on.

It's easy to see why this film was entered for Oscar consideration. The name of Václav Havel, so beloved in America for his dissident activities, will surely be evoked when discussing the merits of the film. The true shadow of director David Ondříček and writer Marek Epstein's story involves Stalin's purge of the Jews after World War II. Czechoslovak president Klement Gottwald, always eager to demonstrate his loyalty, followed suit by staging his own show trial for Jewish members of his government, with his good friend and party chief Rudolf Slánský the first to hang.

None of this is ever revealed. We learn of Zenke's SS past only through a chance glimpse, and the show trial and Soviet role in the affair are strictly cameo. Highlighting the currency devaluation instead may seem laughable, but it's meant to show the government lying to the people the whole time. The point is to follow the captain from the scene of a petty crime to the criminal policy of the Politburo. Unfortunately, there's very little gripping suspense along the way and the forensics basically comes down to, "Do me a favor, will you?"

The lack of any real plot gave actor Ivan Trojan more room to showcase his talents. In Medvídek (2007) he got to show off his Italian, here it's German. His Hakl has the trench coat, mannerisms and hunches of a world-weary detective, who sees clues not obvious to others. But as for clues to what motivates him, there are none. Some personal history with the Jews? Feeling betrayed by the system he works for? Just tired of everything?

He knows nothing will change if he exposes the plot, he knows it will cost him his life. But there he is, smugly telling his boss, security henchman and Soviet minder about the evidence, before following the henchman to the meat grinder. Perhaps he feels he failed as a family man, perhaps he wants to show his superiors he's smarter than them, perhaps he simply loves truth above all else. The only certain clue is that this movie aspires for an Oscar and Hollywood typically demands a good bloodletting for films that deal with the painful past.

This movie received many awards in the local (Czech national) competition, but in just about any category I can think of, it is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

Camera: It is called "In the shadow" and indeed, 80% of the time you are straining to see who and what are where on the set - there is no light. It is apparently intentional, but in a criminal story it just does not work.

There are too many shadowy men in coats and hats; one is a 'good guy' who is killed in the end, the others are colleagues and STB (Czech KGB) agents, but half of the time you are required to guess which one is which in the scenes.

The historical context and plot are just not believable. It should be 1953 in Czechoslovakia, 5 years after the Communist coup and 2 years after the biggest show-trial (see Slánský_trial on wikipedia). Everybody knew in 1953 that the legal system was just being used to murder whomever STB/KGB wanted to murder. This was not really hidden, because the show trials were intended to intimidate the population. All the complex shenanigans in film make no sense. They did not need fake testimony etc., etc. The call mentioned in the other review was not to stop the exchange (and the border with West Germany did not look like that). In short, if you really know your history, the movie just does not ring true; it's contrived.