Hanele

A meandering period melodrama set among a Hasidic village community in 1930s Ruthenia, loosely telling of the impediments that befall beautiful Hanele (Jelinková) on the path to marriage. First comes her once wealthy father's impoverishment, scuppering her dowry, followed by the unwelcome attentions of marauding soldiers and the gormless village idiot. At which point she throws in her lot with modernity and joins a workers' commune in the big city. Here she's courted by an apostate free thinker, setting the scene for a climactic battle of wills back home with her devout father. The film is often pretty and quietly contemplative; and Hanele's two contending men are dignified with their own reasons. But the secondary roles are often woolly, and, crucially, Hanele herself is a characterless void. (From Ivan Olbracht's story, The Sad Eyes of Hana Kardzicová.