TBWITWW and I each have separate Netflix queues. Because our tastes are fairly different, this allows us to have different recommendations. Also, because I watch movies as background, I have a much more lowest-common-denominator selection. Action movies and the like. However TBWITWW uses TV that way, so when she watches a movie, she tends to choose movies that require a bit move brain power to enjoy. This has led to some great discoveries. One of those was Rabbit-Proof Fence. A movie that we would have likely never heard of, let alone watched, without the recommendation on Netflix. The latest was Zelary.
While this movie tells the story of a member of the Czech resistance in WWII who is forced to relocate to the countryside to avoid the Gestapo. The only way she can integrate herself into the rural community is by marrying a local who was a patient at the hospital she worked at in the city.
All of that is really quite incidental to the real story of this movie. The story is really about how people become part of a community. The transition from outsider to insider is the underlying theme as we watch Eliska become not only accepted by the community, but also how she learns for herself what it means to be part of that community.
The best way to describe the emotional effect of this movie is by way of a fairly tortured analogy. Imagine you're going to visit a friend you haven't seen in a long time, and you've driven a long way to get there. At the end of Zelary, you feel like you've just settled down on the couch to go to sleep after that drive. You're a little bit drained and a little bit uncomfortable, but relaxed, satisfied and optimistic for tomorrow.
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