“You can’t live without freedom,” reads the first trailer for the expected film about the Mašín brothers, which was filmed by their distant relative Tomáš Mašín. A sample of it was published on Wednesday evening by Czech Television, which describes it as “one of the greatest stories of the Cold War”.
The film Brothers will be shown in Czech cinemas on October 26. | Video: Czech Television
The film, which was created according to the script by Mark Epstein, will be released in cinemas on October 26, seventy years since the escape of the Mašín brothers to West Berlin. Oskar Hes and Jan Nedbal will play the main roles, Matěj Hádek or Tatiana Dyková will appear in others.
“The story of the Mašín brothers is one of several screenwriting Himalayan peaks. It is treacherous in many ways,” said screenwriter Epstein some time ago. “It looks extremely cinematic and at first glance the author doesn’t have a lot of work to do. It was only with time that I understood what a huge dramatic giant I was standing in front of. Every character in the drama of this family is anciently tragic, and the screenwriter’s work was mainly in the choice of material that would not fit into the story, ” he added.
The case of the group around the brothers Josef and Ctirad Mašín, who opposed the communist regime with guns in their hands in the early 1950s, is still controversial today. The resistance fighters tried to continue the activities of their father Josef Mašín, executed in 1942 by the Nazis.
Six people died during their actions – two SNB members and a treasurer in Czechoslovakia, and later three East German police officers. Josef Mašín, like his older brother Ctirad, who died in 2011 in the USA, never regretted their actions in post-war Czechoslovakia and when they fled.
“It’s a topic close to my inner set-up. When someone stands up to clear odds, I support them. I’m also interested in the moral dilemma of the story, that running on the edge when you respond to aggression with force and that affects even those closest to you,” said the director earlier Tomáš Mašín, who traveled the escape route through Czechoslovakia and East Germany with Josef Mašín.
Tomáš Mašín made his debut with the narrative drama season 3 in hell, which was nominated for eleven Czech Lions. He also scored with the TV series The Protector, which won the Czech Lion. Marek Epstein is the author of the scripts for the films Charlatan, Václav or Angel of the Lord 2. He received the Czech Lion for the script for the drama In the Shadows.
Video: Killing people? I would do everything the same, said Mašín
Communism was worse than what the Nazis did in the former Czechoslovakia, Josef Mašín, a member of the former resistance group, told DVtv. | Video: Daniela Drtinová
