Brothers – 28th Made in Prague Festival

Writers: Mark Epstein and Barbara Mašín

Director: Tomáš Mašín

Screened as part of the 28^th Made in Prague Festival, Brothers by Tomáš Mašín is a thriller set in the former Czechoslovakia during the Cold War. It’s an extraordinary story of a small group of young men, some still in their teens, who vow to resist the repressive communist regime and escape to the West. All the more extraordinary is the fact that it’s based on real events. On top of this, you need to factor in that it’s a story that continues to divide Czechs, some of whom see brothers Joseph and Radek Mašín as ruthless murderers rather than as heroes.

The director Tomáš Mašín is distantly related to the family. In interviews suggests that Brothers gives viewers the chance to make up their minds about the brothers and their actions. But this is not strictly speaking true. The film very clearly presents the Mašín brothers as heroes, their family members and supporters all on the side of the angels. To highlight the issue, the director has individuals within the resistance group repeatedly questioning the ethics of what they’re doing. It’s a tricky issue which Tomáš Mašín seems to want to rush through by focusing of ever-more daring escapades. In this way, as the young men wade through rushing rivers or leap aboard moving trains, we can’t help but find ourselves hoping they will win through. They are presented as good looking, sharply dressed, bold and courageous and above all, tenderly devoted to their ailing mother and disabled sister. But these come to feel like standard tropes more than complex exploration of individuals placed in an impossible situation.

The same is true for the men who hunt them down. Because Tomáš Mašín decides to interweave the events of the escape with scenes of the enemy authorities – both the Stasi and the Red Army, as well as more minor branches of each – it ends up with them all appearing to lack what it takes to capture these seemingly invincible young fighters. Although it’s undoubtedly true that Joseph and Radek Mašín and their compatriots succeed in outwitting all the men who try to track them down, there are rather too many scenes of seemingly slow-witted investigations on the other side. In one scene, for example, we are shown an officer ponderously examining pieces of rope to establish the connection between various crimes. Where this might work in a film on forensic investigations, it feels both unnecessary and underdeveloped here.

The chases themselves are beautifully shot and it’s to Mašín’s credit that with a limited budget he creates scenes of such menace, thanks in part to the impressive old tanks and weaponry sourced for the film. Hostile men and dogs constantly lurk in the misty woods. You can’t, however, help wondering why they left the dogs at home when it came to the scene in which our heroes are hiding out in piles of hay in a farmer’s field. Jonathan Freedland’s 2022 The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World is very good on the importance of creating a chemical compound from Russian tobacco that alone will deter sniffer dogs.

The film’s early scenes of the brothers’ family life are delightful. Maslin brings out strong performances from Oscar Hes, as Josef and Jan Nedbal as Radek. Tatiana Dyková is excellent as the suffer mother, Zdena. We are shown brief scenes in which the increasing repressiveness of the communist regime starts to take root which constrast with pastoral scenes of the brothers cycling in sunshine and playfully fighting to help develop the skills that will serve them so well once they’ve escaped. But we are introduced to such a large cast of characters, that it is difficult to retain a clear sense of who’s who, despite the fact that the film is a long 135 minutes.

Brothers is screening at the 28th Made in Prague Festival from 31 October to 30 November.