Smradi

After moving to the countryside to help with their youngest son's asthma, a young Czech family finds that the two older boys, adopted Romanys, suffer some racial prejudice in their new village. This stress puts pressure on the parents as well, and the whole family comes under the strain. This is possibly the best -- or rather, most realistic -- film I've ever seen concerning a household of three or more preteen youngsters. As the director has a few adopted Romany children of her own, it is clear that this is a true work from the heart.

The kids are not angels, as their mother quite rightly points out, nor is there any reason why they should be... but they are clearly beginning to thrive in their adopted family as they come to terms with what effects adoption -- and race -- can have on their family.

In addition to the plot and the downright brilliant characterizations by the older boys, the camera work and scenery is exceptional as well. A very early scene shows clearly what is going on here: we see a church steeple with clocks mounted on different sides of the steeple---showing very different times. Thus, we realize that the film shows both the effects (and remnants) of the past and glimpses of the future both of the family and of the modern Czech Republic.

This movie was very well cast; the acting is superlative. We saw the subtitled English version, which was released under the title "Brats". While the three boys may have their behavior problems, it seems that this title is a bit too negative. On the other hand, the boys are brothers, and the word in Czech for brothers is "bratri". So it seems someone was being cute. "Smradi" is translated as "smell" or "stench", a better title, since the entire environment in which the family finds itself stinks. Without this translation, though, the original title is lost on English speaking viewers. Because titles give insight not only into the film, but into the writer's and the director's concept of the film, this mistaken title is very unfortunate.