Telo bez duse (1996)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Wiktor Grodecki

Writer:

Wiktor Grodecki (writer)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Documentary look at doomed male prostitutes in Prague, ages 15 to 18, who troll at the public swimming pool...

Plot Keywords:

Gay | Male Prostitute | Prague | Interview | Hustler

Also Known As:

Body Without Soul (International: English title)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

Czech Republic

Language:

Czech

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

USA:R | UK:18 (cut)

Filming Locations:

Prague, Czech Republic

Company:

MiroFilm

Soundtrack:

Miserere Mei

This film is deeply flawed

Aside from the jaw dropping sensationalism of this film making, which left me speechless at several points......Once i came back to earth i feel it has to be said that this is "auteur" film masquerading as documentary. As documentary film, it remains irresponsible. The film maker went on to make three films about this subject, and it's more about the film makers own obsessions than anything else. Was it a film about a period in a drug crazed pornographer's monstrous life and how he moved from beyond horror and into the absurdly grotesque.(dark, dark,black comedy) ?? As documentary, i thought this was it's most successful subject. To say it is a film about under age male prostitution in Praha is incorrect. Only part of that reality is ever revealed, so much of what ought to have been explored simply remains absent.To have done all these boys honour & justice, he would have had to expand the true context of their lives and humanised them as much as possible. In the very least abandon a sensationalist and mythologising approach in favour of level headed factual survey. He did not. To say it is a film about pornography in Praha is also incorrect. Again only a small part of that reality is seen, and most left out. No other geographical or social context was explored, no interviews with police or other pornographers. No context of what life is like now in the city of Praha, concerning these matters. To this extent you can charge the director with exploitation of these boys as much as anybody else. This film is a pornographic documentary about sex, drugs and death which happens to be set in Praha . The audience manipulation is phenomenal. I really had to re-check in myself a number of realities after it had finished. Be critical and don't just take this highly disturbing film at face value.