''Charlatan'' ( cs, Šarlatán) is a 2020 Czech-Polish-Irish-Slovak drama directed by

Agnieszka Holland Agnieszka Holland (born 28 November 1948) is a Polish film and television director and screenwriter, best known for her political contributions to Polish cinema. She began her career as assistant to directors Krzysztof Zanussi and Andrzej Wajda, ...

based loosely on the healer Jan Mikolášek (1889–1973), who cured hundreds of people using plant-based remedies. It was selected as the Czech entry for the Best International Feature Film at the

93rd Academy Awards The 93rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released from January 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. The ceremony was held on April 25, 202 ...

making the February shortlist. It won five awards including Best Film at the 2021

Czech Lion Awards The Czech Lion Awards ( cs, Český lev) are annual awards that recognize accomplishments in filmmaking and television. It is the highest award of achievement in film awarded in the Czech Republic. The jury is composed of members of the Czech Fi ...

Plot

The life of , a well-known and successful Czech healer, who diagnosed and healed people using his intuition and his familiarity with plants. His remedies and prescriptions, although mostly plant-based, included lifestyle and dietary changes. He healed not only poor people from the villages but also many well-known people, including the Czechoslovak President,

Antonín Zápotocký Antonín Zápotocký (19 December 1884 – 13 November 1957) was a Czech communist politician and statesman who served as the prime minister of Czechoslovakia from 1948 to 1953 and the president of Czechoslovakia from 1953 to 1957. Biography He ...

. Mikolášek's diagnostic methods and notorious healing got the attention of Czechoslovakia's government. He was finally arrested after strychnine was found in the bodies of two men he had treated. In real life, Jan Mikolášek was tried and convicted in 1959 of tax and other offenses, but not for murder by strychnine poisoning, was released in 1963, and died in 1973.

Cast

Ivan Trojan Ivan Trojan (born 30 June 1964) is a Czech actor, widely considered to be one of the greatest Czech actors of all time. With four Czech Lions for Best Actor in a Leading Role, he has also won two for his supporting roles in ''Seducer'' and '' ...

as Jan Mikolášek ** as Young Mikolášek * as František * as Johanka *

Jaroslava Pokorná Jaroslava Pokorná (born 2 August 1948) is a Czech film and stage actress. She was named Best Actress at the 2005 Alfréd Radok Awards for her role in ''The Wild Duck'' at the Divadlo v Dlouhé. She won the Czech Lion award for Best Supporting Act ...

as Mülbacherová * Miroslav Hanuš as Investigator * as Member of Secret Service * Martin Myšička as Father *

Václav Kopta Václav Kopta (born 21 June 1965) is a Czech actor, musician, songwriter and host. In May 2022 Kopta won the ninth season of a reality singing series Tvoje tvář má známý hlas. Selected filmography Film * '' Sněženky a machři'' (1983) ...

as the Judge *

Jan Budař Jan Budař (born 31 July 1977) is a Czech actor, director, singer, composer and script writer. Biography Budař was born in Frýdlant near Liberec. He graduated from the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts (JAMU) in Brno in 2000. He ...

as Bureaucrat * as Fritz Kiesewetter

Production

The film was a Czech-Irish-Polish-Slovak co-production. The venture included Marlene Film Production (Czech Republic), Kevan Van Thompson, Mike Downey (Chairman of

European Film Academy The European Film Academy is an initiative of a group of European filmmakers who came together in Berlin on the occasion of the first presentation of the European Film Awards in November 1988. The Academy—under the name of European Cinema Soc ...

) and Sam Taylor - both from Film & Music Entertainment Ltd (Ireland), Madants (Poland) and Furia Film (Slovakia) Others involved were

Czech Television Czech Television ( cs, Česká televize, italics=no ; abbreviation: ČT) is a public television broadcaster in the Czech Republic, broadcasting seven channels. Established after the Velvet Revolution in 1992, it is the successor to Czechoslov ...

, Barrandov Studio, Studio Metrage, Moderator Inwestycje,

Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska Radio and Television of Slovakia ( sk, Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska ) or RTVS is a nationwide public broadcasting, state-funded organisation in Slovakia. It is headquartered in Bratislava and led by Ľuboš Machaj. History The organization ...

, CertiCon, Vladimír a Taťána Maříkovi and Magic Lab. Shooting started on 1 April 2019 at Mladá Boleslav Prison.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

took 36 Days. Shooting concluded in July 2019. The film entered postproduction on 4 July 2019.

Release

The film premiered at

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the fest ...

on 27 February 2020. It was set to enter distribution for Czech cinemas on 26 March 2020. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, distribution was delayed to 20 August 2020. The film was viewed by 59,073 people during its first weekend in Czech Theatres. Despite strong competition, the film had strong attendance during its second weekend with 37,000 people, only narrowly beaten only by '' Tenet''. It was chosen to be part of the 26th Kolkata International Film Festival January 2021 lineup and was shown on 11 January 2021 at the Cinema Centenary Building of the West Bengal government.

Reception

The film has received generally positive reviews from Czech critics holding 74% at Kinobox.cz based on 12 reviews. The film was also positively received by foreign reviews. ''Charlatan'' has an approval rating of 89% on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 35 reviews, and an average rating of 6.8/10. The critics consensus says: "Charlatan's slightly dry approach is offset by unique filmmaking flourishes and a fascinating story that make this an engaging, albeit unusual, biopic."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

assigned the film a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generaly favourable reviews". "''Charlatan'' is a film that does not quite satisfy the curiosity it arouses", states Peter Bradshaw in his review for

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

from the Berlinale. "Was Mikolášek a 'charlatan'? Rightly or wrongly, the movie is vehement that he was not. The drama in no way resides in any lingering ambiguity. This Mikolášek is a man of principle and intuitive genius who presides over a flourishing practice. (...) He is played with fiercely controlled stoicism by the veteran Czech actor Ivan Trojan, whose son Josef plays the young Mikolášek. (...) This is a forceful, capable movie with an interesting story to tell but its potency consists in a handful of gripping episodes, the most startling being when the young Mikolášek has developed a love of herbs and a vocation for healing."

Accolades

On 3 August 2020 ''Charlatan'' was chosen to be part of

Telluride Film Festival The Telluride Film Festival (TFF) is a film festival held annually in Telluride, Colorado during Labor Day weekend (the first Monday in September). The 49th edition took place on September 2 -6, 2022. History First held on 30 August 1974, t ...

2020 lineup. It was also recommended for a nomination for the 33rd European Film Awards by

. It was nominated for 14

, including the Best film.

won Czech Film Critics' Award for Best Actor and

for Best Director. On 6 March 2021, ''Charlatan'' won five

including Best Picture, Best Director (Agnieszka Holland), and Best Lead Actor (Ivan Trojan).

References

External links

* *
Charlatan
' at CSFD.cz {{CzechLionBestFilm 2020 films Czech historical drama films 2020s Czech-language films 2020 biographical drama films Films directed by Agnieszka Holland Czech LGBT-related films 2020 LGBT-related films LGBT-related drama films 2020s historical drama films Czech biographical drama films Czech Lion Awards winners (films) Czech films based on actual events