From ICON Entertainment International

Seven year old Marushka (FLORENCE HOATH) lives with her grandparents (JOAN PLOWRIGHT and IAN BANNEN), in an Eastern European city in the 1950s. Her mother (IMOGEN STUBBS) has left to pursue her acting career. Marushka is presented with the conflicting religious values of her grandparents and the Political system taught at school, which in turn is what her uncle (HUGH LAURIE) fights against. What is Marushka to believe?

Eventually Uncle’s dissident behaviour beginsEventually Uncle’s dissident behaviour begins to threaten the family. Secretly Uncle decides he has to escape and get out of the country. But, unknown to all, Marushka is aware of his plan and she is determined to go with him to threaten the family. Secretly Uncle decides he has to escape and get out of the country. But, unknown to all, Marushka is aware of his plan and she is determined to go with him

The effect of Communism on a wealthy Czech family is the focus of this dour drama, which steers clear of inflammatory political statement to concentrate mainly on its leads. Chief among these is young Marushka, whose imagination doesn't allow her to be bound by communist ideals; her opinions, together with those of her politically incorrect uncle, are responsible for the family's downfall. Well-made and beautifully shot, this is none the less a downbeat experience you won't be in a hurry to repeat.

This complex political drama zeroes in on the life of a small bourgeois family living in Stalinist Czechoslovakia. It is set in the 50's. The family is falling apart from the pressure to think along party lines, even in private. The mere mention of the West could result in prison, or worse. Little Marushka is a normal,

imaginative young girl who is not easily repressed. Her ways are not appreciated by her grandparents and her mother who possesses neither trait. Marushka's mother, an aspiring actress in the local socialist-realist theater, spends most of her time cozying up to local Communist leaders. She is too busy for her daughter which leaves the girl to be raised by her uncle and her grandparents. Marushka's uncle does not fully embrace Communist thinking. He values independence and free thinking. This gets the family in terrible trouble with the ever-present authorities. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A Pin for the Butterfly (1994)

One of those oh-so-worthy movies that doesn't fuel one's hopes about the future of international contemporary Eastern European co-production,a political allegory with a tragic tale to tell, but with a director in Hannah Kodicek whose talent simply isn't up to the demands of her own screenplay. Despite the excellent use of Prague locations and superb photography from Ivan Slapeta, the film lets itself down by its confused structure and a particularly ill-chosen, but hard-working,British cast. Joan Plowright seems to have cornered the market in European matriarchs,and here her passively benign character is severely underwritten,while Ian Bannen merely reprises Hope and Glory's Grandpa in a Slavonic setting. Most ill-at-ease,though, is Hugh Laurie's subversive uncle, while Imogen Stubbs as Zina at least enters into the spirit of the thing, delivering revolutionary poetry in a factory as if to the manner born. Although the ending is poignant, the emphases throughout are misplaced,and dispersed in a welter of symbols and dream effects, and any sympathy felt for young Florence Hoath, through whose eyes events are tracked, is swiftly dissipated. Brave try; points for the attempt. TS