THE STORY – A compromising record can change history. Will you sacrifice your family for your country?
THE CAST – Vojtěch Vodochodský, Ondřej Stupka, Táňa Pauhofová, Stanislav Majer, Vojtěch Kotek, Marika Šoposká & Petr Lněnička
THE TEAM – Jiří Mádl (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 131 Minutes
In the world of global politics, the most remarkable place on earth in the spring of 1968 was likely Czechoslovakia. For seven glorious months, the country once shut down under Soviet domination, blossomed under the policies of newly-elected reformist president Alexander Dubček, who introduced a period of political and economic liberalization that became the marvel of the world.
At the forefront of the Prague Spring, as it came to be known, were the journalists from the International News Office of Czechoslovak Radio. They stood their ground in broadcasting independent news from reliable sources rather than tow the Communist Party line, a courageous stand that won them loyalty from Czechs, both young and old. Their success lasted until August 21, 1968, when the first Russian tanks crossed the Czech border, and soon the Prague Spring would be no more.
Faced with the enormity of capturing this wide breadth of story with numerous possible angles, writer-director Jiří Mádl takes a brilliant approach by starting small and beginning his new film, “Waves,” as the simple story of two brothers. Tomáš (Vojtěch Vodochodský) works to support his younger brother, Pavel (Ondřej Stupka) so that the underage Pavel won’t be taken by the authorities and placed in an orphanage. Pavel has been associating with college students protesting the Communist regime and leaves to audition for a job at Czechoslovak Radio. This worries Tomáš, so the older brother keeps an eye on him. Through a series of flukes, Tomáš winds up getting the job himself – a development he chooses to keep secret from Pavel to protect him – and works with the legendary broadcaster Milan Weiner (an excellent Stanislav Majer).
Tomáš is warmly welcomed by Weiner and his fiercely loyal team of reporters, including the team’s sole female journalist, the all-business Věra Šťovíčková (Tána Pauhofová). Though he only took the job to protect his brother from the authorities, Tomáš finds himself inspired by Weiner as the veteran newsman eloquently speaks truth to power to his bosses, refusing to become a mere mouthpiece for the ruling government. Seeing Tomáš’s reaction, Věra takes the newbie under her wing. Once the pair is reporting in the streets, the enormity of the liberalization movement and the potential for violence aimed against it can clearly be felt.
Here’s where Mádl’s “start small” approach begins to pay off. As our reporters begin to interact with protesters in the streets, the issues that are fueling the Prague Spring begin to come to the forefront in a character-based way. When the authorities violently crack down on those in the streets, we are already invested in the fates of our reporter heroes. Any threat to them then is felt more deeply because of the time that Mádl’s screenplay has taken to make us care about them, thus raising the stakes.
That reaches a moral climax when the authorities zero in on the perceived weak spot on Weiner’s team (Tomáš), who is given the choice to become a mole for the authorities, or else Pavel will be sent to the orphanage and an undetermined fate. Honoring his pledge to take care of his brother has been sacred to Tomáš, but informing on his new colleagues seems unthinkable. Yet, a moral choice has to be made. Perhaps Tomáš could provide some small information on the team without hurting anyone but enough to keep Pavel safe? He tries, but Tomáš soon learns that the regime doesn’t play that way.
The spine of any successful film is its screenplay, and the precision with which Mádl has created and assembled the building blocks of his narrative is the source of his film’s strength. Every incident builds from the previous one, so you hardly notice the nightmare scenario beginning to build around the reporting team. Aided by the sharp editing of Filip Malásek, the pacing of “Waves” never flags, and Martin Žiaran’s cinematography seamlessly blends contemporary shots with period footage to place our characters believably in the actual Prague scene.
That same sense of detail extends to the scenes inside the news office, with Mádl creating a dynamic among the reporters, with their constant movement illustrating their dogged devotion to journalism (with a little flirting on the side). Still, there’s a poignancy to their relationships with one another. After hours, even after they party and dance – Mádl’s use of Western pop songs of the era (“Be My Baby” and The Monkees’ “I’m a Believer”) is particularly effective – there’s an awareness that any day, their office could be shut down and they could be carted away to prison. Or worse.
If there is a problem with “Waves,” it’s that Mádl’s reach sometimes exceeds his grasp with too many characters to introduce and pay off. When most of the narrative shifts to what’s happening in the news office, Pavel, who is central to the storyline in Act 1, recedes into the background and is used more as a bargaining chip than as a character. Similarly, the college students with whom Pavel aligns and who take to the streets are barely introduced so that when their ultimate fates are revealed, it doesn’t hit with the impact that Mádl may have intended.
Still, these are relative quibbles in what is otherwise a sweeping portrait of democracy under fire and the courageous people who stood up for it. In its depiction of the fight for journalistic integrity, “Waves” can proudly stand alongside other journalistic films, such as “Spotlight,” “All the President’s Men” and this year’s “September 5,” which dramatize how getting the truth out to the people overrides any other concern, no matter what the political pressure.
Historians have often noted that among the first things that autocratic regimes do when they attempt to seize power is to control the media, a move that we can see happening both at home and abroad today. No matter what the outcome, “Waves” reminds us that it is a fight that must be fought if we are ever to keep alive the flame of democracy around the world.
