The state investigates him and the press denigrates him, but the healer without medical training has every morning in front of his house kilometer-long queues of patients eager to leave their despair behind.
Motorcycle sales
there has been like this in all times and places, but the dramatic interest of Jan Mikolásek (1889-1973) resides in a triple aspect.
First, because it became a legend in the Czechoslovakia of the middle years of the 20th century, and getting it right seems to be quite right.
Second, due to its particular method of analysis: with a simple visual check of the urine of his patients, placed in a transparent bottle, scrutinizing the colors and textures.
And third, and more relevant, because in those years the Nazis and communists dominated the country, who feared their power among the people and suspected their possible deceptions, just until one of the gyrfalcons of one side or the other became ill and ended up coming. to the one baptized as the oracle of urine.
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The Berlinale gets tangled up in its past
"These years there has been a process that has ruined the rule of law in Poland"
With these attractive historical and psychological peculiarities, together with a personality that is fascinating for its complexity, the veteran Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland has composed the remarkable
Charlatan,
nominated for the best direction at the European Film Awards, which is at the same time a political story, a chronicle sentimental and
judicial intrigue
thriller
.
A work displayed with a certain visual power, which also adds a dissonant soundtrack that fits perfectly with the story: stringed instruments that vibrate with the vigor of the scream, squeaks of astonishment at what may be supernatural or scam.
Holland, a specialist in the contradictions of the human being trapped in the cobwebs of totalitarian states - such as the Hungarian István Szabó, who also premieres today in Spain - with works such as
Europa, Europa
(1990),
In darkness
(2011) and
Mr. Jones
(2019), articulates his film with the disparity that a man requires before whom there are no sharp answers.
A guy who at times seems like an inscrutable holy man capable of guessing the day of death of his patients, while in other passages he surprises with his brutal physical and psychological violence.
Holland, 73, knows he cannot pontificate and, as in the Catholic
The Third Miracle
(1999), with which there are various parallels, has the maturity to leave the answers to the viewer.
CHARLATAN
Direction: Agnieszka Holland.
Performers: Ivan Trojan, Luraj Loj, Josef Trojan, Jaroslava Pokorná.
Genre: drama. Czech Republic, 2020.
Duration: 118 minutes.