The Protector

A Czech journalist takes a job at a radio station in Prague broadcasting Nazi propaganda, in order to protect his Jewish wife. But as Nazi rule over Czechoslovakia demands more and more collaboration, his relationship with her begins to break down. The film asks where protecting ends and collaborating begins, and gives no easy answer. The account declares the man neither traitor nor hero; it shows a chain in which each step makes the next one necessary. How much room is left for the woman’s own decisions is part of the story too. The radio studio makes visible how a voice becomes an instrument. Jana Plodkova and Marek Daniel appear in Marek Najbrt’s ninety eight minute Czech film, completed in 2009.