Broken Voices (Sbormistr) – 2025 Czech Drama

 

Broken Voices (Sbormistr) – 2025 Czech Drama

Broken Voices (Sbormistr) is a powerful, slow-burning Czech drama that explores the cost of ambition, repression, and emotional silence in post-socialist rural Europe. Directed by critically acclaimed Bohdan Sláma (The Country Teacher, Shadow Country), the film centers around an aging village choir conductor whose unresolved past begins to unravel when he’s forced to mentor a rebellious young tenor.

The story takes place in a seemingly quiet Moravian town where Jiří Mach (Karel Dobrý), a respected yet emotionally distant choirmaster, has spent 30 years building the local male choir into a cultural institution. His life is strictly organized around rehearsal schedules, church festivals, and tradition. But things begin to shift when the town’s mayor pressures him to include women and younger singers to “modernize” the choir for upcoming European competitions.

Enter David (Vojtěch Vodochodský), a 21-year-old conservatory dropout with a haunting falsetto and a defiant attitude. Jiří recognizes genius in the boy but is unsettled by David’s open defiance of structure, his exploration of gender-fluid identity, and his connection to a traumatic event from Jiří’s own youth during the Velvet Revolution.

What begins as a mentorship turns into a complicated emotional standoff. Jiří’s obsession with preserving legacy collides with David’s call for artistic and personal freedom. The choir—once a symbol of harmony—becomes a battlefield for control, memory, and moral reckoning.

Broken Voices is thematically rich, exploring the silence imposed by tradition and the courage required to break free. The choir metaphorically represents societal conformity—every voice must align or risk disharmony. But David, whose trauma and queerness cannot be “corrected,” challenges this norm and exposes the cracks in Jiří’s carefully composed facade.

Bohdan Sláma’s direction is restrained and poetic, using long silences, rural landscapes, and symbolic use of choral music to heighten tension. The soundtrack, scored by Jan P. Muchow, blends liturgical chants with minimalist piano, creating a soundscape that is both sacred and unsettling.

In its climax, a live choir performance unravels as David sings a forbidden solo—dedicated to a silenced past—forcing Jiří to confront the truth he has hidden for decades. The silence is finally broken.

✅ Quick Summary

Element	Details
Title	Broken Voices (Sbormistr)
Release	Sept 20, 2025 (festival); Oct 10, 2025 (theaters)
Genre	Psychological Drama / LGBTQ+ / Musical Themes
Theme	Repression, identity, generational conflict
Mood	Tense, reflective, musically symbolic
Lead Stars	Karel Dobrý, Vojtěch Vodochodský
Studio	Česká Televize × Film Kolektiv × Slovak Co-Producers