THE BATTLE FOR LIFE

Using a mixture of documentary material they shot themselves, historical material and half-scripted scenes, the filmmakers show life in the small Czech village Bystrá. The ordinary mixes with the spectacular, like when the whole village reconstructs a battle from World War 2 with tanks and explosive devices. But this historical event is only one of the many stories and legends from which the people of Bystrá put together their village’s history. They tell anecdotes about crazy arsonists, rapacious foxes, or brave partisan warriors being killed by the Nazis. The filmmakers accompany a fireman’s funeral and celebrate the new millennium with the villagers. A group of elderly women remembers times long gone, when the economy was good, the local textile factory still flourished, and they had „little money but lots of fun“. One 92-year-old granny still picks weed on her son’s potato field. It’s the stories written down in the village chronicles which give Bystrá its own profile, and it’s people like this old woman who give it a face.