Mandragora

Starring:Miroslav Caslavka, David Svec, Pavel Skripal, Kostas Zerdolaglu, Miroslav Breu, JirÃ Kodes, Karel Polisensky, Richard Toth, Jiri Pachman, Pavel Koci, Jitka SmutnÃ¡, Jiri Kaftan, Bretislav Farsky, Michell Turchetti, Tomas Petrak, Pavel Weisser, Michael Fait, Steve Fisher, Pavel Fuchman, Michael Halstead
Director: Wiktor Grodecki
Studio: Water Bearer Films
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Long and Bleak
I couldn't finish watching
Strong stuff, beautifully acted and directed....
Subject Matter: 4 stars / Script/Editing: 2
The Belly of the Beast

Mandragora
Starring: Miroslav Caslavka , David Svec , Pavel Skripal , Kostas Zerdolaglu , and Miroslav Breu
Director: Wiktor Grodecki
Manufacturer: Water Bearer Films
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Gay & Lesbian | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

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Similar Items:

Body Without Soul
Mysterious Skin (Deluxe Unrated Director's Edition)
Not Angels But Angels
Sin Destino
Young Gods

ASIN: 6305777837
Release Date: 2000-03-28

Customer Reviews:

Long and Bleak .......2006-11-11

As indignity upon indignity is heaped on our protagonist, one gets a distinct whiff of self-loathing if not actual homophobia in this depiction of a young gay man's exploitation in the big city. Mandragora is way too long, relentlessly bleak and only has a couple of novel cinematic tricks to spark a bit of interest.

I couldn't finish watching.......2006-07-27

While the director of this film deals with events that probably happen often, the way that the story is told is relentlessly downbeat. It is hard to imagine that the people the hustlers represent have no good days. I had to stop watching after Marek injures himself in a fit of dispair. I couldn't bear any more.

Some people who pay for sex are abusive and some people who think they can make porn movies treat the models badly. If you think nobody should hustle or be in a porn movie that's fine. However if you are going to tell a story to get that point across then it isn't wise to go from scream-fest to drugged rape to beating then betrayal and so on without a break.

The performances were exactly right. I did not feel like I was watching actors but real people. That added to the horror. Unlike other reviewers I did not feel the quality of the transfer was a problem.

Strong stuff, beautifully acted and directed...........2006-06-01

This is a complicated movie, with a dark subject, but a powerful one, worth lingering over. The movie charts the fall from innocence of 15 year old Marek into personal ruin and death after he runs away from home to Prague.

Despite the very sad plot, the movie is strongly voyeuristic. Ostensibly a moral tale warning of the pitfalls of the gay teen boy prostitution scene, the viewer will find himself fascinated as they watch this sweet boy be stripped of his small town innnocence, and sink into total debravity. Just as Marek achieves some level of stability, he is drawn down shortly into the next step of the personal disaster to which he is destined. Against his better judgement, Marek's lack of self-esteem causes him to be drawn into increasingly serious mistakes in judgement, until he reaches his final ruin.

Ostensibly about Prague's gay teenage prostitution scene, the movie is also an allegory about Czechoslovakia itself. If you understand Czech history, you'll recognize it in this movie. The Czech people struggled for hundreds of years to achieve national self-determination, only to have it smashed by the degradation of Hitler's Munich. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Czech Nation fell into the clutches of Stalinist Communism. The "Prague Spring" was ruthlessly repressed by Soviet invasion. The fall of Soviet Union only led to the disasterous 'privatization' as national symbols and assets of Czech pride were sold to Western Capitalists and Russian Oligarchs. Eastern European, and particularly Czech movies, all seem to have morose themes which I attribute to the tragic history of these societies.

The performances of the principle actors, David Svec and Miroslav Caslavka are outstanding. You'll fall in love with them both! And no one is a better director of the dark movie then director, Wiktor Grodecki. The music score is a great assortment of classical music that complements the dark plot. The photography of of backstreet Prague and rural Bohemia is worth the price of admission alone.

Because I ended up watching this movie several times, and picked up new things each time I watched it, I've given it 5 stars. This movie has a message, and unlike so much stuff out there is well worth your time to absorb it.

Subject Matter: 4 stars / Script/Editing: 2.......2006-01-24

Mandragora is a good film masquerading as a poor film.

What does that mean?

The subject matter is one that deserves attention and the film does a decent job of laying out the horrors of runaway life for boys in Slovakia. However, the script (in part by one of the young performers) is too fragmented and the editing is sparse.

I thought the film was well done on the whole, but severe editing would have helped. It dragged in places and too much expositional material was present. Scenes should have been tightened up with more concise editing.

However the ending was quite Dickensian - a point I liked (if that can be used in conjunction with this film).

This is not a pleasant subject matter and it is not something that should be treated lightly. I think the makers of this film made an earnest effort to deliver an emotional film highlighting the daily horrors run away boys face in Prague.

Unfortunately, while the crux of the emotion is understood, the impact is diluted by the lack of focus and editing.

All in all, though a very good effort to shine the light on a very hot button issue.

The Belly of the Beast.......2005-08-16

NOTE: According to the dictionary: Mandragora is 1) a plant of nightshade family: a plant with a forked root resembling a human body that was formerly believed to have magical powers and was made into a drug and 2)a 14th century alteration of medieval Latin mandragora, influenced by man, drake "dragon" (from its emetic and narcotic properties).

MANDRAGORA, the astonishing film from the Czech Republic written by Wiktor Grodecki (who also directs) and David Svec (who also acts in the film), is aptly named: mandragora is the world of male prostitution that seduces young lads with promises of money and ultimately poisons them with the burning disease of loss of self respect and ultimately of life.

Marek (Miroslav Caslavka in a stunning performance) is a beautiful 15-year-old kid from a little village in the Czech Republic who has aligned himself with petty criminals to have better things such as classy clothing, a lad whose single father (Jirí Kodes) demands he stay in school (yet is always in the background to salvage Marek's errant life situations) and who seems to be prepping his son for a better life. Marek hates school, which he sees as merely a path to be a welder like his father. The father and son collide after another crime spree and Marek leaves home for the big city promises of Prague.

Once in Prague Marek is observed by the pimp Honza (Pavel Skripal) who follows Marek, knowing that Marek's future in the city is doomed without Honza's 'protection'. Within a day's time Marek's luck with the slot machines dries up and Honza convinces him to be his 'rabbit' - a male prostitute. Marek's first encounter with an American 'john' ends disastrously and the beaten Marek returns to the streets where he encounters a fellow hustler David (David Svec). Together they forge an alliance to escape Honza's compound and begin a life of successful prostitution. They are bonded (the probability of Marek's actually being gay and physically attracted to David is strong) and together they encounter all manner of unseemly characters involved in the underbelly of Prague's male prostitution life.

Characters weave in and out of Marek's and David's life, each time leaving scars that grow more visible as does the threat of drug problems and AIDS. They eventually consent to embrace the lowest level of making gay porn where the cruel director forces Marek to be sodomized by David. They are raided by the police and Honza reappears as Marek's nemesis. Through a series of drug-induced hallucinations and dreams Marek envisions what his future holds and his descent is stamped. Yet at this point Marek's father journeys to Prague in search of his son, discovers his life style, is terrified and angry and tangentially passes Marek in a critical final scene that is devastatingly sad.

This film is dark, frank, cruel, realistic, and sweats with the evil of the belly of the beast that is Prague's underworld. Yet the direction is so fine and, equally important, the acting by Miroslav Caslavka so sensitive that we as the audience are swept into an overwhelming compassion for these unfortunate lads whose seemingly only hope for a better life is one of humiliating degradation. MANDRAGORA is a no holds barred examination of a dark life that maintains a precarious balance between caricature and character development. Yes, it is lengthy at 126 minutes, in need of editing in areas, has faulty subtitles, and a strange musical score by Wolfgang Hammerschmid who extrapolates Puccini's 'Nessun dorma' and Bach's 'Erbarme dich' and 'Wir setzen uns mit Tranen nieder' from the St Matthew Passion for heavy effects, and very dark cinematography by Vladimír Holomek, but despite these sidebar problems, they only slightly mar the overall impact of a very important film. Grady Harp, August 05

Average customer rating:

Long and Bleak
I couldn't finish watching
Strong stuff, beautifully acted and directed....
Subject Matter: 4 stars / Script/Editing: 2
The Belly of the Beast

Mandragora
Starring: Miroslav Caslavka , David Svec , Pavel Skripal , Kostas Zerdolaglu , and Miroslav Breu
Director: Wiktor Grodecki
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( M ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Body Without Soul
Mysterious Skin (Deluxe Unrated Director's Edition)
Not Angels But Angels
Sin Destino
Young Gods

ASIN: B00008IAU1

Customer Reviews:

Long and Bleak .......2006-11-11

I couldn't finish watching.......2006-07-27

Strong stuff, beautifully acted and directed...........2006-06-01

Subject Matter: 4 stars / Script/Editing: 2.......2006-01-24

The Belly of the Beast.......2005-08-16

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