Grand, epic and visually-impressive film with fantastic scope photography which deserves to be much better known than it is. Long Live the Republic is a sensitive, humorous and lively film with classical charm.The story is set in a village in the beautiful hills of Moravia (in central Czechoslovakia) during the last days of World War II. The Germans have already left, the Russians have not yet arrived. The young Olda is pestered by the older children because he is so small. He has no friends, except a strange old man who is a great animal lover, also a victim of the hatred of the other villagers. Olda is ordered by his callous father to hide their horse, their only possession, in the woods. When Olda loses the horse to soldiers of the fleeing German army, he makes a very reckless decision.
