Milada

Milada (2017) is a Czech-American historical drama directed by David Mrnka that you can watch online on iFILM. Ayelet Zurer plays Milada Horáková — Czech lawyer, women's rights advocate and member of parliament — across a thirteen-year span running from pre-war Prague in 1937 to her execution on June 27, 1950.

Horáková survived imprisonment by the Gestapo. After liberation she returned to politics and refused to leave the country when the communists seized power in 1948. Arrested on fabricated treason charges, she was put through a show trial broadcast on state radio and sentenced to death. Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill and Eleanor Roosevelt sent personal petitions for her pardon. The sentence stood.

Zurer plays her without ceremony or martyrdom, which is exactly right — the facts are stark enough. For most audiences outside Central Europe, Milada will be a first encounter with this particular history, and a necessary one. Watch Milada online on iFILM.