Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

dworldeater Mandragora is a very rough, uncompromising film dealing with runaway teen boys from Prauge that end up selling their bodies to immoral, creepy old men that frequently abuse them. This is presented in a brutally honest and realistic fashion. Mandragora is taken from the point of view of our main character Marek. Marek is a lost wayward boy that runs away from home that was very vulnerable and easy prey for the various unsavory characters that hang out at the train station. He ends up working the streets and is exploited and poorly treated from the very beginning. Marek ends up befreinding the slighty more street smart David and together get in a lot of trouble. Things progress from bad to worst as the film goes on. Marek is a sympathetic character and the consciousness of the film. While he may be incredibly naive, he truly is not an inherently bad person. While his decisions are horrendous at best, he is victimized and brutalized by the human compost that occupies the nefarious underworld of Prauge. Marek is on a downward spiral path of self destruction and this film pulls no punches in its presentation. Mandragora is an extremely depressing film, but is very well done in capturing what these lost souls must endure. This may be the bleakest, most depressing film I have ever seen. While this absolutely is a strong film, it is not one I wish to rewatch and I am no lightweight. This may be the most bleak and hopeless film I have ever watched. I found this to be more disturbing than even Life Is Hot In Cracktown and A Serbian Film. This is truly rough stuff, definitely not for the squeamish.

didier-20 Grodecki's recent fascination with the Prague teen rent boy scene translates better as fantasy fiction than documentary. First of all, it protects Grodecki from accusations of gross exploitation of his subjects and secondly it allows for greater transparency of the film maker's obsessions and the way he uses his craft. His themes come through - innocents, childhood, corruption. Morality and excess. Crime and punishment. His perspective is naive - everything is black and white, dark and light, the good and the bad; the fairy tale aesthetic which has a history both in Czech sensibility and Czech cinema. It's an odd combination of children's television meets xxx hard core gay porn. (Grodecki is Polish, so he could stand accused of Romantizing Czechs with a cliché image.) He gets closer to the boys' story through fiction, a story he betrayed in Body Without Soul. The monstrous film pornographer is interestingly no less a caricature as a fictional person as he was as himself (see Body Without Soul) Some of the surface of the present day Czech republic (2005) is etched away so we see what ordinary life is really like and this is actually more interesting than the whole street hustler drama which we've all seen a thousand times. The portrayal of gay people as demonic corrupting monsters or as victims is depressingly prevalent. An outrage, considering recent developments. Admittedly, a lot broods in Czech society, and a lot is wrong. But there is a healthy and vibrant gay culture in the Czech republic. There is also a healthy, celebrated and established gay porn industry which is not dangerous, illegal or questionable. Recently Prague gay porn stars passed through London book stores on a world tour ! This is a good thing when you take into account the regressive gender attitudes prevailing in Poland, Belarus & the Ukraine. We see none of this perspective. Again, so much missing.....

zkapil Its a true story. Story is really the most depressing of all the movies i have seen. And its a beautifully made movie.See how human beings can become beasts. I thought there is no God in the world where this can happen.What should i say more u have to see it urself. I saw the movie 3-4 months back but its still very fresh on my mind.Marek (protagnist), age 16, goes to Prague (a big city) where he and so many of his age group from smaller towns end up being prostitutes. People from richer countries of europe and US come there and exploit these poor boys.

fmartini Although certainly low-budget, a beautifully shot movie that provides a handful of scenes you'd never seen in a domestic flick (e.g. running down the staircase, the cigarette lighters in the train station). Should be a lesson to our blockbuster directors of what can be accomplished if one thinks a bit. It's a hard story to watch. And certainly fast-forwards time a bit (with some not too clear flashbacks and foreshadowings), but worth the effort if you enjoy a good, if a bit melodramatic, story.