Mandragora

Czech Republic 1997

Picture and details imdb

Seen 23 August 2006

Reality. Disturbing. The film focuses on Marek, one out of hundreds of the daily runaways found in the big cities of the Czech Republic. In this case the big bad but beautiful Prague. He is the typical adolescent growing up in a small town with no hopes of improving his position in life if he stays put. He will eventually in all likelihood be another factory worker like his father.

Marek encounters his first dose of reality when he steps off the railway station in Prague. No money, no friends. This is where the reality of being a runaway in a big city strikes homes. A pimp befriends Marek and immediately sets him up with his first customer. He goes through his rites of passage in the big city - a painful passage.

From that moment on, Marek goes through all the nitty gritty of surviving as a child prostitute, he is barely sixteen. The last parts of the film show how Marek'’s father tries to find him but Marek'’s life has gone through so much change that a happy ever after scene is not in the picture.

The actor who played Marek was very good. His facial expression just pleads for mercy when he was in the throes of danger. There is a blank look in his eyes when the beatings and torture at the hands of perverts ends. He faces another day with his body contorted in pain. He is just an empty shell, a vessel to be used by those who pay for his services. An existence, not a life.