TOBRUK
directed by Václav Marhoul
written by Václav Marhoul (based on The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane)
produced by: Václav Marhoul
Director of photography: Vladimír Smutný
Main cast:
Jan Meduna (private Pospíchal)
Petr Vaněk (private Lieberman)
Robert Nebřenský (corporal Kohák)
TOBRUK
North Africa, II. WW, Fall 1941. Jiri Pospichal, twenty years old, signs up as a volunteer in the Czechoslovak army. His naive ideas about heroism are rawly confronted with the hell of the African desert, complicated relationships in his unit and the ubiquitous threat of death. All this takes its cruel toll in the shape of his gradual loss of self respect and courage.
He is full of self-confidence and patriotic ideals, yet at the same time is deeply frustrated by his father, whom he views as a collaborator. His closest companion is a Jewish soldier, Jan Lieberman, in many ways more mature. Their opposite, in turn, is Corporal Kohák, a former member of the French Foreign Legion, for whom warfare is above all a profession The psychological drama between these three characters, the differing attitudes and personalities of each of them, are, during the course of the story and most clearly in its dramatic climax, brought into confrontation with a clear and harsh test of the moral character of all.