The Czech New Wave ushered in the Prague Spring of the late '60s, the failed attempt to liberalize Iron Curtain rule. It also spawned such masterpieces as Jirí Menzel's Closely Watched Trains. The Velvet Revolution eventually overturned the Communist regime and established the democratic Czech Republic. On its heels came the so-called "Velvet Revolution" in film; it has yet to prove itself. Jan Hrebejk's Divided We Fall, like Menzel's film, explores the themes of occupation, collaboration, resistance, and sexual dysfunction. Unfortunately, it draws more on Menzel's sentimentality than on his sardonic elegance.

Josef Cízek (Boleslav Polivka) and his wife, Marie (Anna Sisková), are childless and spiritless, and when the Nazis take over, they have real problems. David Wiener (Csonger Kassai), a rich Jewish neighbor, escapes from the camps and the Cízeks begrudgingly offer him refuge. To accommodate David, Josef must collaborate with the new regime, joining his disreputable colleague Horst (Jaroslav Dusek) in confiscating Jewish property. A sexual quadrangle of sorts emerges, with Dusek's Horst -- his toothbrush moustache suggests both Hitlerian truculence and Chaplinesque play -- the most intriguing corner. But Fall dissipates its pathos, irony, and moral conflicts by going on too long; in the end this "Velvet Revolution" looks more like Velveeta. At the Avon.