‘Broken Voices’ review: Powerful Czech choir drama is loosely based on real-life abuse scandal

Dir/scr: Ondrej Provaznik. Czech Republic/Slovak Republic. 2025. 105mins.

13-year-old Karolina (Katerina Falbrova) is overjoyed when she is picked for a prestigious ladies’ choir, becoming a member of her older sister Lucie (Maya Kintera). Quickly, her pure, crystalline voice and eagerness to please be a magnet for formidable and charismatic choirmaster Vitek (Juraj Loj). However Karolina quickly learns the facility that Vitek wields is usually abused, and the eye he lavishes comes at a substantial price. Set within the early Nineties within the Czech Republic – a time of widening horizons and cultural satisfaction within the nation – this highly effective youngster’s-eye view of an abusive grownup is loosely based mostly on an actual case, the Bambini di Praga intercourse abuse scandal, which got here to mild in 2004.

A sensitively structured psychological drama

Damaged Voices follows Ondrej Provaznik’s 2019 function Previous-Timers (co-directed with Martin Dusek), which received a number of Czech Lions (the pair additionally made 2010 documentary Coal In The Soul). This sensitively structured psychological drama advantages from first-rate casting (newcomer Falbrova is especially spectacular), and may discover loads of curiosity on the competition circuit. It might additionally determine within the awards dialog. Distributor curiosity isn’t out of the query, nonetheless the image’s probabilities is perhaps barely stymied by the very fact it launches in the identical yr as Urska Djukic’s equally themed (and extra distinctive) Little Bother Women, during which a brand new member of a Catholic faculty choir in Slovenia falls foul of the overbearing choirmaster.

Gangly and slightly ungainly, Karolina has an unsteady foal-like high quality that’s exacerbated by her mane of hair and the perimeter that covers her eyes. She appears to be like as much as her 15-year-old sister: Lucie is worlds away by way of sophistication and, as a member of the chosen few singers that get to carry out for the general public, she has a thrillingly casual relationship with the choirmaster, who permits the elite choir members to name him by his first identify. Throughout a celebration to have a good time the choir’s success, Karolina watches, wistful and invisible on the sidelines, whereas the older ladies haul Vitek onto the dancefloor and squeal with pleasure when he obliges with a number of slick dance strikes.

However the charming off-duty Vitek is a unique beast to the person who bullies and belittles the members of his choir. Peering over a balcony whereas her sister rehearses, Karolina watches as one of many ladies is singled out for a brutal dressing-down for her lack of dedication and despatched dwelling in tearful shame. For Karolina, it’s a fortuitous flip of occasions. The woman quits rehearsals and Karolina is invited to check out for the slot, and probably be a part of the choir on a tour of the US. Her excessive youth and innocence makes her susceptible, each to the riptide tensions that churn among the many ladies and to Vitek’s whims.

Music, not surprisingly, is central to the storytelling, with the choral performances spectacular (non-professionals drawn from an precise choir make up a lot of the supporting solid). Elsewhere, the skittering, excitable rating captures Karolina’s pleasure at being observed by Vitek. A mix of evocative manufacturing design and costume selections work along with the grainy 16mm movie images to seize the atmosphere of the period.

Provaznik additionally makes use of rhythms and repetition to highly effective impact. A recurring scene during which the sisters take the forbidden shortcut by way of the woods has one thing approaching a fairytale symbolism: there isn’t any doubt an enormous unhealthy wolf is lurking someplace sooner or later.