Broken Promise

Colour, 35 mm
Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, USA, 2009, 124 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

A drama about the fate of Slovak Jew Martin Friedmann during the Second World War, based on real events. The talented footballer from a large family is initially unaware of the approaching Nazi threat and, of his own accord, he goes off to a work camp in Sereď, where his friend Fred has secured him a place on the football team. As the war progresses, Martin finds himself in various different situations which take him to a sanatorium for tuberculosis sufferers, a monastery and partisan hideaways. In many of the places he ends up, he has to conceal his Jewish origins. Broken Promise is the story of a young man who managed to escape death not thanks to his heroism, but through luck and his talent as a footballer. The episodic structure of the film captures all the major crossroads of Martin’s war period and concentrates, in particular, on the fundamental storyline reflecting his compulsion to survive.

About the director

Jiří Chlumský (b. 1958, Prague) studied documentary film at Prague’s FAMU (1987). After college he worked as assistant director for Krátký film Praha and was also employed externally for Czechoslovak Television Prague. His film debut was the comedy Halt or I’ll Miss (Stůj, nebo se netrefím, 1998). Chlumský filmed several television fairy tales: Frozen Vasil (Zmrazený Vasil, 1993), The Only One in the World (Jediná na světě, 1995), The Sorcerer (Černokněžník, 1996), The Wedding Lace (O svatební krajce, 2003) and a series of TV films. He is also the director behind various TV serials "All or Nothing” ("Hop nebo trop”, 2004), "Eden” (2005), "A Place in Life” ("Místo v životě”, 2006), "Ugly Kate” ("Ošklivka Katka”, 2008) and the feature film Money Makes a Man (Prachy dělaj člověka, 2006).