‘Waves’ Review: Jiří Mádl’s Drama on the End of the Prague Spring Marks a Timely Portrait of the Power of Principled Journalists
variety.comManuel Betancourt Historical dramas — in particular those centered on fearless feats of resistance against authoritarian regimes — often seek to be warnings.
The oft-quoted Winston Churchill line — “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” — may ring simply too facile.
Yet in watching a film like Jiří Mádl’s handsomely mounted period drama “Waves,” one cannot help but see in its story, and in the history it’s retelling, an urgent plea about the pressing need for a free press.
But within its thriller-like trappings is also a complicated meditation on how such a demand rests on the shoulders of men and women who are human, and therefore fallible. “Waves” opens with an unequivocal historical truth: “The Soviet Union keeps Eastern European countries under its control,” a voice informs viewers as images of Joseph Stalin, the U.S.S.R.
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