Mandragora

The elegantly filmed story provides a very thought provoking and heart wrenching look into the treacherous lives of runaway boys on the streets of Prague. Although this is the story of one runaway boy, it represents the stories of hundreds of runaways.

The boy, Marek, runs away from his father, whom he feels is mean and does not understand him. He arrives in the big city of Prague where, because of a lack of money, he is immediately seduced/tricked into selling his body. What follows is the story of how he falls deeper into the underground world of prostitution, violence, porn and drugs.

This movie seemed really harsh to me. I guess one of the reasons for that is that the main character Marek looks alike a person I used to know – someone I have lost actually – I won't get into many details. There were quite a few moments of this movie which were astonishing with their way of showing the reality out there. Reality which exists, but many are not ready to accept this fact.

To me Marek is a normal teen-aged boy, who needs his own space – he is tired to hear from people who think that they know what is best for him. Unfortunately he should have listened to his dad – a person, who surely loves him, trough somehow the link between them was lost. There is emptiness in the heart of the boy – caused by the missing of his mother – I did not get if she died before or just left them, but somehow the fact she was not there was affecting Marek in a way which make me to think that he was more close to her than to his father.

I can not blame him for running away , I myself have considered this opportunity several times and even seeing movies like that , seeing that it could be hard to survive couldn't quite affect my troughs that someday I may do it. The differences between me and Marek – he is more brave than me – he took his decision and acted on it. It is another question if his decision was silly or not … The first sexual scene is very disturbing – I felt sorry for the boy. I was watching the screen thinking "Now you have to go back ", but at the same time realizing that for him this was not an option. The scene at the bar – when he announced for a very first time his new profession is where you see the way he deals with it. I could hardly forget the way he spoke, as he approached the American tourist, the way he looked him – it seemed oddly professional – I don't really know what term to use to describe it.

At the same time we see the other types of characters – the pimps, the boys, the clients – they are portrayed in greater details. Somehow even their face expression talked about their personality or at least it did to me.

I passed trough a very similar place to this bar in which Marek was approached by the pimp for a first time. And you know as I looked into it – it seemed unbelievable how many were the similarities to what was shown in the movie. The only difference – the prostitutes were girls – but nothing more. When school as over I have to pass that places again (and 8 pm doesn't seem like the right time to do it – but I have no choice) – after seeing the movie it freaks me out a bit.

But on to the movie – it is a masterpiece of Wiktor Grodecki, there is no doubt in this. I highly recommend that you watch it at least ones. And may be someday you will be able to make the difference for a boy like the ones shown in this movie – to take him out of his own hell he is living it. Even trough it is hard – as the boys seemed doomed to their destiny.

This isn't one of those movies you can pop in your DVD player or VCR anytime of the day and enjoy it. This isn't a movie you rent with your girlfriend to make out too. It's not a movie you would recommend to your friends, and it's not a movie you get a bag of popcorn and sit down with your family and enjoy. This movie will disturb you. This movie will make your stomach feel awful, hours and possibly days after you watch it.

Marek is a troubled teenager who is having trouble at home and at school and he realizes he's much different than they are. His father finds out Marek has stopped going to school and tries to talk some sense into him. Talking turns into yelling and this pushes Marek further and further away and decides to runaway from home, which takes him into the dark underworld and streets of Prague. In Prague, Marek is drugged, raped and forced into a life of hustling for money, where AIDS is always a threat.

It twists and turns down dark roads without a light and by the time the movie ends, you feel a little sick to your stomach. It's a side of life we're not used to seeing, we know it's there, but either we don't care or we realize we can't do anything to help make matters worse. Wiktor Grodecki makes you care. He shoves it right in your face in plain view. You have no choice but to look. Wiktor Grodecki pulls at your heartstrings and breaks your heart over and over throughout the movie.

Wiktor Grodecki's masterful film entitled "Mandragora" is by any standard, a stirring and gut wrenching example of poverty gone amok. The torrid film depicts the story of Marek, superbly played by Miroslav Caslavka, a troubled boy of fifteen who, bored with the juvenile pranks and idle antics in an average town, seeks the glitz and glitter of the city of Prague. Once there, he quickly realizes the needs of life in the big city come with a price, one which he cannot afford and thus succumbs to the hungry appetite of the predatory elements surrounding him. Beginning with the alluring promise of quick cash for services rendered, Marek, quickly realizes this means his 'innocence' which is taken after being drugged and raped. Escaping the inattentive and uncaring pimp, he descends into the depths of sexual perversions when he encounters and befriends a more 'experienced' partner who trades him to a dark, sadistic pair, leaving him broken and violated. The decent into the perverted practices continues when, after a brief respite, he finds himself beaten, left for dead and in the hands of a vicious pornographer. With his father searching for him, the boy having survived an appalling apprenticeship, delves into the illusionary and dead end world of drugs where father and son unfortunately miss each other by inches. All in all, a truly revealing film for anyone wishing to have a worm's eye view in the slow death of male prostitutes. *****

The seedy world of Czech gay prostitution and porn is given an uncompromising pasting in this chilling account of a provincial school boy's experiences when drawn to the big city. Yes, it is completely over the top. Virtually every character he meets is either violent, nasty, selfish or simply insane. A pimp terrorizes his boys like a 20th. century Fagin sending them out to service clients whilst keeping every dollar for himself and beating up any dissenters. A porn film maker expects his models to ejaculate to order in ten seconds whilst directly overlooked by his brood of pre-teenage daughters carrying mugs of coffee. Clients brutalize their boys with savage sadism and unspeakable perversion. These things may happen in isolated incidents but the broad mass of prostitution and porn is not quite as black as the film makes out. It is a cartoon image of filth that shocks the viewer into serious thought and conflicting emotions. It is absolutely brilliant.