Protektor

Synopsis

What are you willing to betray for love?

A story of a couple’s fateful realtionship. Against the backdrop of war, they live out their own personal drama.  A story of real feelings, of love which, in extreme times, can be pushed to the brink of self-destruction and nevetheless maintain its strength and hope.

A risky game about career, feelings, human dignity and, in the end, about life in the dark days of the Protectorate.

COUNTRY
CZECH REPUBLIC

GENRE
DRAMA

CO-PRODUCER
CZECH TELEVISION, UPP, SOUNDSQUARE, with the support of State Cinematography Fund (CZ)

RELEASE DATE
24. 9. 2009

SCREENING FORMATS
HD CAM, HD FILES

RUNTIME
100 MIN

Trailer & Photogallery

Cast & Crew

DIRECTOR
MAREK NAJBRT

WRITER
MAREK NAJBRT, ROBERT GEISLER, BENJAMIN TUČEK

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
MILOSLAV HOLMAN

EDITOR
PAVEL HRDLIČKA

COSTUME DESIGNER
ANDREA KRÁLOVÁ

CAST
JANA PLODKOVÁ, MAREK DANIEL, KLÁRA MELÍŠKOVÁ, TOMÁŠ MĚCHÁČEK, RICHARD STANKE, JAN BUDAŘ, JIŘÍ ORNEST, SANDRA NOVÁKOVÁ, MARTIN MYŠIČKA, SIMON SCHWARZ A DALŠÍ

MUSIC
MIDI LIDI

SOUND DESIGNER
TOMÁŠ ZŮBEK, MAREK HART

PRODUCTION DESIGNER
ONDŘEJ NEKVASIL

About the film

Radio reporter Emil Vrbata and actress Hana are married. It’s the year 1938. Attractive Hana lands her first big success in film, admirers flocking about her. Emil is jealous. The German occupation and the beginning of the war turn their lives upside down. Hana is confronted with her Jewish heritage. From the high hopes of a star at the start of their career, she falls to the bottom of society’s ladder.
Emil, on the other hand, is promoted at the radio station and becomes the voice of Reich propaganda, a celebrity. He siezes on this chance to protect and, at the same time, take control over Hana’s life. He refuses a divorce and, in the interest of Hana’s safety, continues in their „racially mixed marriage“. Emil’s contract with the devil, however, levies its own tax. Emil’s self-respect cracks, his love for Hana changes into its own „Protectorate“. Their marriage twists into a state of indifference.
And fate has laid a trap for Emil. One morning, running late to work from the arms of a lover, he steals a steals a stray bicycle on the street. Little does he know the radio is already buzzing with startling news: „In Prague an attempt was made to asssassinate the Reich Deputy Protector Reinhard Heydrich. One of the suspects escaped on a bicycle…“ Emil‘s unfortunate encounter with the seemingly banal object of the bicycle launches him on a frantic journey for forgiveness in the ezes of his wife, whom he realizes he has always loved…