MANCHESTER - Israel Congregation's International Jewish Film Festival concludes on Sunday, March 10 at 4 p.m. with the visually stunning movie "Protektor" (2009), a Czech film that focuses on the moral dilemmas faced by its main characters who reside in Prague in 1938. The dialogue is in Czech with English subtitles.

Emil is married to the beautiful Hana, an actress whose new film has catapulted her into fame. However, as the Nazis come to power, Hana's Jewish heritage precipitates her fall from stardom to the bottom of the social ladder. In order to protect her, Emil, a radio reporter, compromises himself by accepting a promotion to become the on-air voice of Nazi propaganda after his boss agrees to pretend that he doesn't know that Hana is Jewish. Hana's life goes from fame to fear until the assassination of the Third Reich Deputy Protector and a chance encounter on a bicycle bring their lives to crisis. Interestingly, the bicycle's prominent role in the plot - seen in the reoccurring flashes to the similar bicycle scenes and multiple cycles in the plot - originated with a quote by Adolf Hitler who referred to Czechs as cyclists who hunch over while they peddle a bike.

"Protektor" was the Czech Republic's Foreign Language submission to the Oscars in 2009. Despite being set in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, it frequently takes an unanticipated, lighthearted view of World War II. According to the New York Times, "bathing everything in a retro-noir sheen, Miloslav

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Holman's photography sings." The Hollywood Reporter observes that "young director Marek Najbrt, commendably, is not interested in wringing easy tears from the European experience of World War II. In the handsome drama Protektor, he brings a cool, noirish slant to a story of Czech artists and intellectuals as they accommodate and, to a lesser extent, resist the German occupiers."

All are welcome and admission is by free-will donation. Refreshments will be served. Israel Congregation of Manchester s located on Route 7A north at 6025 Main Street.

For more information or in the event of snow, call Doris Bass at 802-297-0167 or Lee Fox at 802-867-0199.