Identity Card

The last thing our cinema needs at the moment is another bittersweet episodic comedy drama about surviving "back then, all those years ago" from the Jarchov stable... But what can I do if I simply have a soft spot for this type of Czech mainstream movie? Especially when the mix of "fun with the serious" in Identity Card is the best such mix in a long time. And if the parade of great (and well-played) characters and individual scenes were accompanied by a more interesting main protagonist, my satisfaction would have been even greater. (25/10/2010)

A film with a pleasant, fresh and (with a few exceptions) not that well known of a cast, but which will be appreciated mainly by those nostalgic for the depicted era. For me, a person who didn't nod and say "Yeah, yeah, that's it" all the time while watching, because he simply didn't experience it, I was left with a strangely incoherent story made up of various episodes, a parade of typical Šabach characters (so nothing original either), an incredibly long runtime (it seemed a dull three hours to me) and otherwise nothing much. In short, another variation on a theme that has been seen several times before. (18/12/2011)

Let's sing the song all the way through after twenty years. And indeed "finally" times have changed so much that the formerly condemned mops now have their own black and white film. What was bad before is good today. Fine, but where is the added value? Do we portray the journey to the Plastic People of the Universe as heaven on earth and getting off the train as hell in a socialist cage? Let me know when they start filming sometime in the next x years about what it was like to live in the middle of these extremes. It is not pleasant to admit that you did not have to be for or against it, but this was also reality. However, if I consider the Identity Card from a different perspective, I can appreciate, for example, the set of sub-gags that are so great that they alone surpass many films that fall right into that cauldron of the last unbalanced twenty years. Indeed, it would be a mistake for me to expect a compact film made from Šabach's miniatures. The sets are in direct contrast to the unrealistically-conceived Czech series Wonderful Times, which is an emblematic example of another extreme in the treatment of (not only) the Czech normalization past. The adult actors must be praised as a whole - none of them disappointed - from the stalwarts of the creative team Geislerová and Macháček, through the relatively untested Myšička, the new Dulava, to the classic Šulcová or Vlach. The overall realism, which is the biggest positive of the film, was most supported by the well-chosen youngsters, who left several generations of other youngsters behind with their straightforward performances. Unfortunately, hand in hand with this, along with the alarming positives, to which I'll add the scene of the young teacher's firing in particular, I also have to deduct points for its unnecessary double-ending. The otherwise totally amateurish Czech film Lovers & Murderers also felt better in this context. And, of course, many other promising topics were not coaxed out at all. Particularly the attempted emigration, the truth about the founding brothers, and the new generation of the family of cops. All in all, I'm bitter about the result, which. Whilst answering my long-standing reservations about the problems of Czech cinema in a positive way, it also deepened other mistakes. (04/11/2010)

I am a generation (born in 1986) that has never experienced anything as ceremonial as the official issuing of identification cards. I have to say that I am quite glad because I have already had three graduations, one as the winner of the best bachelor's thesis competition, and I must say that it was also an event that did not impress me in any way. Everything was very official, staged. Still, it was better than the theater that young people had to witness during the socialist era. The depiction of the issuing of identification cards in this film is not necessarily epic, but it is definitely portrayed excellently. On one side, there are loyal communists, and on the other side, there are rebels who want to resist, even just a little. It was a sad time, and I am glad that I was born at a time when the communists' bell was tolling and a bright capitalist future awaited us. Yes, there is a bit of irony in that, but the review should not dwell on it. More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2013/02/obcansky-prukaz-2010-75.html (15/03/2013)

Revolting, grinning, and sobbing. Considering how fed up I am with the places Czech filmmakers constantly turn, Identity Card is an incredibly uplifting experience. Additionally, the fact that Petr Jarchovský is the one writing for Ondřej Trojan this time is literally its salvation, because I wouldn't believe Jan Hřebejk's returns to the past even with a C cup. (17/01/2014)