Directed by:
Tomáš Vorel st.Cinematography:
Tomáš Vorel st.Cast:
Anna Kameníková, Tomáš Vorel ml., Tomáš Hanák, Barbora Nimcová-Schlesinger, Eva Holubová, Bolek Polívka, Jiří Schmitzer, Marie Štípková, Vojtěch Vovesný (more)Plots(1)
Honza Marák has long since left his career in IT behind him and has bought a cottage at the end of a small village, where he has settled in with his wife Markéta, daughter Anyna and son Sayen. He works in the forest as a general labourer. Markéta earns a living providing massages and alternative treatment to her patients, for which she uses various psychotropic plants and mushrooms, which leads to a conflict with the long-term residents and ultimately with the drug squad. Their daughter Anyna goes to an elementary school in another town, where she is falling behind because she wanders through the forests and learns from nature instead of from textbooks. The Papoš family are farmers of long standing in the community. Their son Ludva Papoš jr. does not live on the farm with his parents and he refuses to tend the farm with his father. He studied forestry college and lives in a gamekeeper's lodge in the middle of the forest, all alone with his dog. After work he goes to shoot pests when, one night, he encounters the nymph Anyna, a vegetarian... (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (4)
This is a big leap up from the still somewhat controversial Out of the City (which I now prefer more and more). To the Woods again has a strange (non) story like its predecessor and the same bizarre characters played by deliberately overacting (non) actors, but in terms of atmosphere and poetic mood, it is a much less aggressive and much more pleasant soothing film, which, despite all the bizarreness, perfectly and believably tells about life in the village and in nature, about the common worries of ordinary people, about their values... Vorel doesn't moralize, but at the same time he shows us how he knows and sees it all and how he imagines it should work to make the world beautiful. Of the actors, in addition to all the proven aces, I have to highlight the perfect central pair.
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An ecological agitation film probably like Seclusion Near a Forest (if so, then the new age), only mid-range, and compared to the first film a little less naive and more open to the characters to bear the consequences of their nonconformist attitudes. Otherwise, quite pleasantly lyrical praise of game-keeping and life in the forest inhabited by characters who are no longer as much of caricature as in Out of the City. So, the "cellar" instinctual humor has diminished and weird or serious dialogues were added - but it's hard to deny that as soon as a fundamentalist view appears on the scene, Vorel beats it with an ironic counterpoint. In the end, then, glory to game-keepers who eat mushrooms. The village idyll is alive and I still enjoy it. Tomas, just keep on shooting boars. You will not be able to please us stressed out intellectuals from the city with aggressive urban farces. But I like this massage with cannabis and toadstools.
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This is a sequel to a film that came out twelve years ago, and this film isn't worth it. The modern story of Romeo and Juliet provides nothing new, perhaps only acting opportunities for the friendly bunch. The seemingly eloquent shots of the forest lack personality and the inconsistency with the first film is most acute when comparing Hanák's etudes, which have no point in the second film. Polívka and Holubová repeat for the hundredth time what they have done many times before, Schmitzer's storyline might have had more to it, but again it didn't reach any point, and this time Bára was essentially pointless. If Anna Linhartová is super fashionable now, we're in for a lot pointlessness.
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The film no longer focuses so much on the character of Tomáš Hanák but on his film daughter - in terms of the number of years, the continuity here is not entirely accurate, and it's more of a loose sequel. This daughter, who takes after her mother in being very natural, is essentially an activist, albeit on a small scale. She loves the forest and all living things, so she inevitably comes into conflict with the young forest ranger, played by the director's son. To the Woods is nothing more than an ecological romance, which sounds quite dreadful. There are some good scenes here, but overall, it just feels like a rehashing of a theme that Tomáš Vorel is fond of. It comes across as a modern hippie film. The second time around, it didn't resonate with me as much, although young Vorel surprisingly acts quite well.
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