Já, Olga Hepnarová

The movie plunges us into a world of nihilism, where the darkness of the human psyche reigns supreme. It is a portrait of a young woman who is disillusioned with society and driven to commit a heinous crime. The movie explores the depths of human despair and the impact of social isolation on the individual psyche.

Director Tomas Weinreb and Petr Kazda don't shy away from the darkness that engulfs Olga's world. They craft a bleak and unrelenting atmosphere, one that is suffused with a sense of futility and despair. The cinematography is austere and bleak, reflecting the emotional landscape of the protagonist.

The movie presents a provocative challenge to the viewer's values and beliefs. It forces us to confront the darker aspects of the human condition and consider the ways in which society fails to address the needs of its most vulnerable members. It is a stark reminder that the human psyche is a fragile and complex thing, one that can be pushed to the brink of madness under the right conditions.

In movie, Weinreb and Kazda have created a chilling portrait of a young woman who is pushed to the edge by a society that refuses to accept her. It is a powerful reminder of the need for compassion, empathy, and understanding in a world that can be so cold and unforgiving.

Greetings again from the darkness. Most youngsters have executed a perfect eye roll on at least one occasion after receiving a dose of parental advice that seemed irrelevant to them at the time. An early scene in this biopic finds teenage Olga listening as her mother says, "To commit suicide you need a strong will, my child. Something you certainly don't have. Accept it." This is a warning shot fired at the audience to be cautious when judging the actions of the last woman executed in Czechoslovakia.

Co-directors Petr Kazda and Tomas Weinred seem to believe that most viewers will be familiar with Olga's story, and presume the film's austere look, lack of flow, and structure of seemingly unrelated scenes will provide a sense of the choppiness and isolation that might explain her otherwise inexplicable actions. Based on Olga's true story and the book from Roman Cilek, the film will have you questioning whether her behavior was the result of horrible parenting, or more closely related to her psychological issues – perhaps even schizophrenia.

Michalina Olszamska (The Lure) delivers a committed performance as Olga, the 22 year old woman who in 1972 drove a truck into a group of people in Prague, killing 8 (all between the ages of 60 and 79). A year later she was hanged, becoming the last woman executed in Czechoslovachia.

The movie focuses on the various elements and key moments of her life – father's abuse, mother's iciness, attempted suicide, treatment in asylum, rejection by a lover – that led to her isolation and feelings of alienation. We sense her internal rage building over time, and her inability to cope or even connect with others; though at times we question whether her troubles are by choice or a result of her treatment … it's kind of a twist on the nature vs. nurture debate.

There have been other fine movies that have dealt with a similar theme: There's Something About Kevin, The Omen, The Bad Seed. Each of these deal with the whole good vs evil idea … are some kids born "bad" or are they pushed that way? Either way, it's a parent's worst nightmare. This black and white presentation allows us to keep our emotional distance from Olga, and the no frills approach provides a quite chilling reenactment of how Olga ended up sending a letter to the local newspaper announcing her intention to seek "revenge" for the hatred that society had heaped upon her for years.

Nowadays, the tactic the terrorists using is to ram a truck into the crowds. Since the automobile revolution, such incidents have been called accidents. But there were some intentional incidents and this is was one of those. If I'm not wrong, this could be the first such event that recorded as early as in the 1973. Olga Hepnarova in her 20s has not had a pleasant life so far. Victim of bullying, family trouble, she left alone to be a loner most of her life. Her sexual life was another obstacle to get along with the society, but she had a decent paying job. And then suddenly, unexpectedly, she unleashes her inner devil.

Like I said, what this film based on was simply another crime. But what's happening right now made it to get into the spotlight. Otherwise, I don't think they would have made this film. Yes for nationally, but Internationally, there would have been less interested in it. Now this story is definitely an international level. Everyone would know about Olga. The actress who played that role was good too.

The film was black and white. Gives a perfect 70s look. Though a little boring film. The screenplay was not engaging enough. There were too many plain scenes like what we see the art films. They should have highlighted more on the bully and other Olga's struggling life, I mean physically. What I saw was leaning towards the side of the story result. The film is not for everyone, particularly being dull presentation makes people turn it down. Otherwise, it's not bad to ignore.

5/10

Rating this movie is not an easy task for me. It has its strengths, but also aspects that I could not digest. First, the black-and-white picture is fine and takes you back to the 1970s. But a movie without opening credits and absolutely no music was somewhat shocking. Actually, most of the movie consists of short, mutually unconnected scenes, where people don't talk, and are just sitting or standing.

Although this "art style" captures the gloomy inner world of Olga, I can not ignore that it is disrespectful to the audience who may have problems to understand, what is actually happening on the screen. The original version reportedly lasted 2 1/2 hours and the editor's digital scissors reduced it on the border of comprehensibility. And I say this as a man who had studied the entire history of Hepnarova and I was able to successfully predict what will follow in the next few minutes. Undoubtedly, the movie will lose spectators due to these insensitive cuts. And that's a pity, because the second half - starting from the massacre through the trial up to the execution - is already filmed in the chilly spirit that I expected.

It is here, where Michalina Olszańska shows her superb performance, and with her, this whole spectacle stands and falls. The probe into Olga's depressing psyche is the true peak of the movie. The filmmakers also try to be authentic and virtually all presented scenes are based on real testimonies, Olga's letters and court documents. It is only in the lesbian scenes, where they apparently exaggerate. For example, Hepnarova was in love with her female colleague, but they have never had any intimate relationship. Even the openly lesbian contact at the disco party is odd in Czechoslovakia of the 1970s - to say the least. (Although it is again inspired by the fact, because Olga liked provoking and was sometimes wearing a jacket on a naked body.)

As a whole, this film biography of Olga Hepnarova is impressive and leaves feelings that will fly you off the handle for many hours. In fact, it is not unusual that during the final credits, spectators remain downright frozen to their seats. However, I am still sorry that the final result could have been even better. If I were in place of the directors, I would take the movie as Olga's retrospective narrative during interrogation. Her own words would cover the "dead spots" in the story and explain her inner feelings. Too late...

In Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1973, Olga Hepnarová drove her truck through a crowd of elderly people waiting on the sidewalk. Olga's actions were deliberate and planned….and she ended up killing 8 innocent people in the process. Now, over four decades later, filmmakers Petr Kazda and Tomás Weinreb have brought her story to the big screen—perhaps in light of several similar acts committed throughout the world by jihadists. But viewers of the film need to be a very specific and patient lot, as the movie clearly is not one intended for the average viewer.

The film begins the teenage Olga attempting suicide and as a result being incarcerated in a rather awful mental hospital. While the film didn't make this clear, she apparently was in and out of mental institutions during much of her life. The film then picks up with Olga as a young adult, working and having various sexual relationships. The publicity material for the film describes her as a lesbian and the film also takes that approach, though I read up on her and apparently she was bisexual. I am not sure why they chose to portray her as a lesbian but viewers will see quite a bit of Olga and several of her lovers. Regardless, this is not a film for the prudish.

It is odd that Olga is shown as being so sexual since she also had a very strong hatred for the human race and felt she was the world's 'whipping boy'. The film uses the German word 'prügelknabe'—which I had to look up on the internet and I am mentioning this in case you see the film and find yourself confused by the term. But regardless, Olga hated people and had a very strong persecution complex. And, as a result, she apparently felt completely justified to murder the people at the bus stop.

Now it's obvious that Olga was not in her right mind. She was flat emotionally and intensely angry deep within her. Most would consider her insane. However, she knew what she was doing and simply did not care and admitted this freely in court. So what was the court to do with her?

This is a very well crafted film. The filmmakers used black & white footage which I think was a good move since the story took place in the late 60s and early 70s. Michalina Olszanska also did a superb job portraying the title character as it would not be easy playing someone with so little emotion nor with much connection to others. But this brings up a problem…if the main character is this emotionally constricted and the film is told from her point of view, is it an easy film to watch? This is obviously no for most people. You have to have an interest in the subject matter and you have to be very patient, as the film is slow and almost completely bereft of energy. Olga is severely depressed…and it is draining, at times, watching her. I was able to stick with this because of my own background as a therapist, though I sure could have done without the vomiting scene early in the film. I have no idea why in recent years filmmakers have decided to show close-ups of folks throwing up…and I think this is perhaps taking realism a bit too far. Overall, for the right viewers, "I, Olga" is well worth seeing but for most it's just too much of a downer.