Historical dramas – especially those that focus on courageous acts of resistance against authoritarian regimes – often seek to serve as warnings. Winston Churchill’s oft-quoted dictum – “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” – may simply seem too superficial. Yet when watching a film like Gerry Madel’s historical drama Waves, one can’t help but see in its story, and in the history it retells, an urgent plea about the urgent need for a free press. But within its thriller-like trappings, there is also a complex meditation on how such a demand falls on the shoulders of men and women who are human, and therefore fallible.
“Waves” begins with an unambiguous historical fact: “The Soviet Union keeps the countries of Eastern Europe under its control,” a voiceover tells viewers as images of Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union, and the aforementioned countries and peoples (including targeted political prisoners and the executed). Flash on screen. “Any sign of freedom is forcibly suppressed,” says this short introduction, setting the tone for the paranoid atmosphere into which “Waves” quickly descends. Media censorship – and the fear it produces and relies on – is rampant. The year is 1967 in Czechoslovakia, and in that country there is no larger media organization than Radio Czechoslovakia.
Set in the run-up to the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, Waves is most fascinated by the way in which the staff of Czechoslovakia Radio’s international news desk served as the last bulwark against the tyranny that would eventually take full power in 1968. When the Tanks Rise The forces suppressed any open defection from the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia. As an entry point into this history, Mádl introduces the fictional character of Tomáš (Vojtěch Vodochodský). He’s an ordinary man who unwittingly finds himself working at the radio station and witnesses firsthand how brilliant journalist Milan Wenner (Stanislaw Majer) truly stands up against state censorship and intimidation.
Like many citizens who listen intently to his every word, Thomas is in awe of Weiner. But unlike his younger brother Pavel (Ondrej Stupka), who takes to the streets in protest and sees in such activities a strong sense of civic duty to which he must uphold (which Weiner rightly exemplifies), Thomas is more concerned. Wiser. Maybe more realistic. He is the type of citizen who is eager to lay his head down and make sure he has food to put on the table while he takes care of his brother. He sees himself neither as privileged nor as having the principles to personally engage in the resistance of which his new workplace becomes a symbol.
Once Thomas began working at the radio station, Weiner and his team began to respond more aggressively to news coming from the Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak government itself. Weiner quickly made it clear that he was not about to be just a cog in the propaganda machine his boss wanted him to be. His beliefs put him and his team in the crosshairs of the government and military who have become increasingly hostile to those who do not toe the party line. When a recording of what actually happened during a student protest arrives at their desk, Weiner and his colleagues (not to mention Thomas, who has been recruited by State Security to report on the radio’s activities) have to weigh how far to shine a light on the truth. And whether their livelihood and sense of security are worth such a risk.
The events of “Waves” unfold like a ticking time bomb in a spy thriller. Filip Malasek’s editing deserves praise for maintaining an edge-of-the-seat pace, even when the story is playing out exactly as you know it. Tested loyalties and a cat-and-mouse chase paved the way for the courageous work accomplished by Czechoslovak radio journalists in the year before the invasion. The film’s lively beats (scoring alternating between 1960s pop songs and Simon Gough’s dizzying compositions) soon make it feel like a John le Carré thriller. Freedom of the press is not just an abstract concept here; It is an embodied moral imperative that falls on professionals who have constantly had to make difficult personal choices that can put them at odds with colleagues, friends, and even family.
By anchoring this tale from Thomas’s perspective, Madel captures the moral clarity of the likes of Weiner—and the even more matter-of-fact approach of a character like Vera Šuvičkova (Tatiana Pauhovova), a key figure in the anti-occupation broadcast that serves as the climax. Event in the movie — Feel more powerful. This is not a biographical portrait of Czechoslovak Radio as a beacon of civil resistance. It is a humanitarian work based on how difficult it is to make moral choices in the face of tyranny.
Led by its stellar ensemble, Waves delivers a fast-paced historical drama, the kind whose straightforward narrative is enhanced by its stylistic and narrative confidence. Perhaps those familiar with the history of the 1968 occupation know how things will turn out. But Madel isn’t just interested in chronicling that pivotal year. It commemorates a historical moment that resonates in 2024, precisely because its central themes have not become historical in the decades since. If anything they became more urgent about it.