Regie:
Vít OlmerCamera:
Juraj FándliMuziek:
Ondřej SoukupActeurs:
Lukáš Vaculík, Jiří Krampol, Karla Třísková, Marie Reisnerová, Ivan Jonák, Jiří Pomeje, Ivana Velichová, Tina Adams, Lenka Jelínková, Kateřina Winterová (meer)Samenvattingen(1)
Director Vít Olmer's attempt at an American-style popular crime drama with socially critical overtones. The story turns on the disappearance of a girl and the attempt to find her. The investigation leads a young reporter, a middle-aged policeman, and a Czech-American woman to a Romany prostitution ring. (officiële tekst van distribiteur)
Recensie (4)
The wild beginning of the nineties, when the Czechs wanted to catch up with the past forty years in no time at all, was also reflected on the screen. Pretty much everything was allowed, meaning that the gypsies are the biggest pigs trafficking people, there’s BDSM porn, and also machine gun shooting. Yes, the filmmaking aspects are horrible, but fifteen years after it was made, it's a rather rare piece of work that in its own way perfectly characterizes the era.
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I saw the movie during its premiere and I actually only remembered that it is a terrible film, i.e., a typical example of a mess made in the enchantment of early Czech capitalist filmmaking in the first half of the 90s. I watched it again much later and I must admit that my own reaction to the film surprised me. Usually, after a decade and a new viewing of a movie, I deduct stars, often more than one. Here, I went from expecting garbage to three stars, simply because giving more would be an insult to really good films. For years, I have been considering visiting a certain festival and watching films with an exceptionally bad reputation. However, I don't have the courage to do so because most bad movies are boring, bad in that offensive way, and only occasionally, usually by chance because such things cannot be planned, there unintentionally emerges a funny situation - simply a guilty pleasure when you stare at the screen and a smile spreads from ear to ear. That's exactly the case with this film where the combination of the director, cast, genre, and commercial interests led to the creation of a bizarre but all the more entertaining spectacle. Karla Třísková casting is so bizarre and was unfortunately never repeated anywhere else, Jiří Krampol became an action hero much later than he deserved and much later than he had a realistic chance of handling such a role. The presence of such miracles of character acting, like Jiří Pomeje and some others, adds another level to it, as does the cameo role of Ivan Jonak. Vít Olmer has his considerably low limits, we all know that, so all this together led to a result where this film rightly deserves to be included in the program of that aforementioned festival and could provoke a decent response. This time, I won't give an overall impression because, let's face it, this is a specific matter.
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"Friends, I feel a razor in the air..." the quipping Belmondo Jiří Krampol, his silent companion Fernet, the astonished Czech-American student, and the "male chauvinist pig" Lukáš Vaculík face the flaws of early capitalism. The spirit of the age sealed in a bottle with an @ symbol. The apparition of Saint Vitus tainted with dirt just like Fuka’s rim. A filmic hell where you’ll be frying with a goofy smile, listening to an aggressive soundtrack, and pondering how to interpret the ending scene featuring a detail of elephant dung... "Get yourself in the recycling bin..."
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In terms of film quality, it's terrible, but there are some ideas here. When you look at today's society, there isn't that much of a difference. The white meat trade works just as well as racism, and I'm not just talking about white racism towards the Roma people, but also the other way around. The picture is really dark and it's not pleasant to look at, but the musical aspect is quite intriguing. Moreover, it's quite bold, which you don't see that much anymore either.
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