Lidice.

June 9, 2011

Thursday was another good day (Everyday in Prague is a good day haha). After class and resting up we went to meet up with some other students to go see the film Lidice. It was based off the tragedy that happened in a small Czech town during World War II. All the men were shot, the children gased, and the women sent to concentration camps. Not many people survived. It was in response to the assassination of Hitler’s third in command. Watching this movie was just, well words can’t describe. There were English subtitles so we could follow but there were parts of the movie I was just shaking and had knots in my stomach. To think people could just kill in cold blood was sickening. There were a few scenes that really stood out that really stuck with you. One scene was when the father was getting back from prison to find the town he lived in…completely flattened. It was covered in snow and there was a wide panoramic shot that showed flat, white snow. Nothing was left of the town. The other was the carriages carrying the children that weren’t blond haired, blue-eyed and you see hands up against the glass as banging to get out as they start to die. This movie didn’t over do it…didn’t dramatize it the story. They gave it to you straight up. I liked that because it is such a delicate subject to make a film about and I think they did an excellent job with it. After the movie was over, the audience just sat there. Frozen watching the credits. I am pretty sure everyone in the theater was just trying to absorb the magnitude of this horrible crime. A group of us afterwards just sat there outside the theater in silence because we couldn’t think, couldn’t fathom because while that movie did a great job, it was nothing I’m sure compared to the real thing. So after all of that, we headed a place up the road from the institute to meet up with others to chill out which is what we needed after that movie. Next up, ROAD TRIP!