Review by
Benjamin Poole
Directed by: Agnieszka Holland
Starring: Ivan Trojan, Josef Trojan, Juraj Loj, Daniela Voráčková, Jaroslava Pokorná
Suddenly, everybody is an expert on pharmaceuticals. To jab, or not to
jab; while armchair experts recite the varying impacts of vaccine strains
with all the studied confidence of a jaded sommelier (if you can get it,
then the Johnson & Johnson one is meant to be best against mutations
of Covid, according to a man in the queue for Tesco yesterday). Plus,
jab-paranoia aside, there is the implication that, increasingly, our lives
are bolstered by prescription meds: do you know anyone who isn’t on some
sort of drug or another? Conspiracists argue that ‘Big Pharma’ strategizes
to keep us dependent and negative blooty on their pricey treatments at the
expense of natural, and more effective, remedies, and in the UK alone 17%
of people are on powerful anti-depressants (fwiw, knowing people who are
doctors, I find it very hard to believe that anyone would put themselves
through the expense and heart-breaking toil of medical training simply to
become a shill for shady corporate shenanigans...).
Charlatan, the latest film by Polakiem legend Agnieszka Holland, is a
therefore timely biopic of Jan Mikolášek, a herbal and faith healer who
practiced in what is now the Czech Republic throughout the first half of
the 20th century. Cocking a snook to contemporary medical practices,
Mikolášek’s methods involved looking at glass bottles of his patients’
urine, diagnosing based on the consistency of the piss, and duly
prescribing medication consisting of herbs and barks from the garden.
People certainly seemed to believe in Mikolášek - the film opens with
crowds of people queuing to see the herbal apothecarist, clutching little
yellow flasks (over the course of his career, Mikolášek supposedly treated
five million people). But, as the irl debate surrounding the controversial
figure implies, was Mikolášek simply selling hope to the poor masses?
While there were, probably sensible, questions regarding Mikolášek
at the time, there is, however, no such dispute in Holland’s
hagiographical film, which gives its central figure a maverick dignity. We
pick up with Mikolášek in the twilight of his career, his history told to
us through flashback; the love of nature and initial training as healer,
grim involvement in the war, and eventual homosexual love affairs
(criminalised at that point in time).
The film is shot with that kind of mahogany sheen of quality drama: the
deep wooden colours of Mikolášek’s office contrasting the washed out greys
of exterior Czech (in the background, Commie car spotters may notice a de
rigueur Trebant!). Golden flasks of illuminated urine are photographed
with the same careful detail of Tarantino filming someone’s feet. It’s
striking to look at, and Ivan Trojan’s performance is typically
magnetic. His Mikolášek is bookish, but deeply repressed, a man who is
attempting to stand against suffering and needless death, but, as is the
natural way of things, inevitably fighting a losing battle.
The problem with Charlatan, and by extension, all biopics, is that by and large, real life isn’t
necessarily narratively interesting. With its stubborn sidestep of any
exploration of the veracity of Mikolášek’s practice, the film avoids what
is possibly the most intriguing aspect of the tale. Third act plot
dynamics involve the Communist regime cracking down on the individualist
medico, but, despite being true to life, this peripeteia itself has a
narrative inexorableness. In order to create moments of individual drama,
the film cherry picks harrowing events from Mikolášek’s biography. A
typical tableau involves the boy herbalist tasked with drowning a sack of
unwanted kittens from the farmyard cat. Frustrated at being
unable to save the little fur babies, Mikolášek kills them to
death by bashing the sack against some rocks. It’s a shocking moment, and
one which, in its random nature, is narratively unearned.
The film does, nonetheless, come alive when it focuses on the relationship
between Mikolášek and his stoically handsome Daniel Craig-alike assistant
(Juraj Loj), depicting layers of cultural suppression and shame
being pulled back with all the urgent force of a ripped off band-aid. When
depicting the human interaction, and forbidden passions (the sex is
preceded by uncomfortable violence) of two people acting within the laws
of love and nature, and not mandated structures,
Charlatan comes closer to realising its central themes.
Charlatan is on UK/ROI VOD from May
7th.
