Austin Film Festival: 'Tobruk'

Although the story of the brutal World War II battle of Tobruk has been told on film several times, it has never been told from quite this perspective.

This Czechoslovakian film, written and directed by Václav Marhoul, fixes its focus on a battalion of Czech infantrymen, whose small unit was an unwavering part of the Allied defense of Tobruk, on the Libyan coast of North Africa. The Czech and Slovak army numbered fewer than 800 in this location but they defended their ground over the many months of this arduous battle. Marhoul's film, however, does not focus on the strategies and shifting demarcations of the battle; his primary attention is on the young men at the front. Drawing inspiration for the screenplay from Stephen Crane's revolutionary 1895 war novel The Red Badge of Courage, Tobruk resists pursuing Crane's storyline until about halfway into the movie. Until that point, Tobruk shows the training undergone by the raw recruits and the friendships and tensions that devlop among the men in the unit. The greatest attention is paid to the adept Private Pospíchal, played by Jan Meduna, and the more militarily inept Private Lieberman, a Jew played by Petr Vanek. These two bond in unexpected ways.

Under their first attack at the front, Pospíchal becomes convinced there is no possibility of survival and beats a haswty retreat and wanders through the desert. The plot of Red Badge comes into play at this point as we witness the trajectory that turns a deserter into an ultimate hero. Before that point, there is a lot of sand, dust storms, and great expanses of nothingness, making this story of a 1941 battle in Africa relevant to present-day warfare in the Middle East. The cinematography and staging of the warfare are magnificently composed. with such stellar production values and terrific performances it is easy to see why this film received th Austin Film Festival's Narrative Feature Jury Award.

Tobruk screens Sunday, Oct. 25, at 9pm, at the Regal Arbor Theatre.