Charlatan (Czech: Šarlatán) is a 2020 Czech-Polish-Irish-Slovak drama directed by Agnieszka Holland based loosely on the healer Jan Mikolášek (1889–1973), who cured hundreds of people using plant-based remedies.[4] It was selected as the Czech entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards making the February shortlist.[5][6][7][8] It won five awards including Best Film at the 2021 Czech Lion Awards.[9]
Plot
The life of Jan Mikolášek [cs], a well-known and successful Czech healer, who diagnosed and healed people using his intuition and his familiarity with plants. His remedies and prescriptions, although mostly plant-based, included lifestyle and dietary changes. He healed not only poor people from the villages but also many well-known people, including the Czechoslovak President, Antonín Zápotocký. Mikolášek's diagnostic methods and notorious healing got the attention of Czechoslovakia's government. He was finally arrested after strychnine was found in the bodies of two men he had treated.[10]
In real life, Jan Mikolášek was tried and convicted in 1959 of tax and other offenses, but not for murder by strychnine poisoning, was released in 1963, and died in 1973.[11]
The film was a Czech-Irish-Polish-Slovak co-production. The venture included Marlene Film Production (Czech Republic), Kevan Van Thompson, Mike Downey (Chairman of European Film Academy) and Sam Taylor - both from Film & Music Entertainment Ltd (Ireland), Madants (Poland) and Furia Film (Slovakia) Others involved were Czech Television, Barrandov Studio, Studio Metrage, Moderator Inwestycje, Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska, CertiCon, Vladimír a Taťána Maříkovi and Magic Lab.
Shooting started on 1 April 2019 at Mladá Boleslav Prison.[12][13]Principal photography took 36 Days.[14] Shooting concluded in July 2019.[15] The film entered postproduction on 4 July 2019.[16]
Release
The film premiered at Berlin International Film Festival on 27 February 2020. It was set to enter distribution for Czech cinemas on 26 March 2020.[17] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, distribution was delayed to 20 August 2020.[18][19] The film was viewed by 59,073 people during its first weekend in Czech Theatres.[20] Despite strong competition, the film had strong attendance during its second weekend with 37,000 people, only narrowly beaten only by Tenet.[21] It was chosen to be part of the 26th Kolkata International Film Festival January 2021 lineup and was shown on 11 January 2021 at the Cinema Centenary Building of the West Bengal government.
Reception
The film has received generally positive reviews from Czech critics holding 74% at Kinobox.cz based on 12 reviews.[22] The film was also positively received by foreign reviews.[23]Charlatan has an approval rating of 89% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 35 reviews, and an average rating of 6.8/10. The critics consensus says: "Charlatan's slightly dry approach is offset by unique filmmaking flourishes and a fascinating story that make this an engaging, albeit unusual, biopic."[24]Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating generally favourable reviews.[25]
"Charlatan is a film that does not quite satisfy the curiosity it arouses", states Peter Bradshaw in his review for The Guardian from the Berlinale. "Was Mikolášek a 'charlatan'? Rightly or wrongly, the movie is vehement that he was not. The drama in no way resides in any lingering ambiguity. This Mikolášek is a man of principle and intuitive genius who presides over a flourishing practice. (...) He is played with fiercely controlled stoicism by the veteran Czech actor Ivan Trojan, whose son Josef plays the young Mikolášek. (...) This is a forceful, capable movie with an interesting story to tell but its potency consists in a handful of gripping episodes, the most startling being when the young Mikolášek has developed a love of herbs and a vocation for healing."[26]
