Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23799 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-03-10
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: Czech
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 133 minutes

Special Features
Czech
Region 0
English

Synopsis
Two gay teenage runaways thrown out of their repressive homes try to survive on the streets of Prague. Hunger and desperation forces them into a life of prostitution, drugs, and teen-porn. Based on the true stories of it's mostly non-professional cast and shot in the streets, train stations, and sex clubs of Prague.

Customer Reviews

Top of the bill
Some movies which are story-based could be seen as 'documentaries'. Director Wiktor Grodecki's first 'movie' (Body without soul) which was actualy ment as a documentary, tells about Chechish boys who come to Prague to earn money, but end up as prostitutes or 'actors' in porn movies. Perfect soberness and story-telling make that movie great.

Now the same director Wiktor Grodecki directs a 'movie' with a beginning and an end. (which you could call a story) And because of that choice, Grodecki makes the entire Prague-prostitute issue even more sober or 'dark'. His way of putting the scenes into picture cannot go beyond your imagination about tis particular porn/prostitute scene. Sometimes with tears in your eyes or with shivers running down your back! That feeling is exactly what makes this movie/documentary one of its finest or Top of the Bill!

A yaoi manga set in real life: tragically beautiful
DISCLAIMER:
Any unauthorized reproduction of my review (also in excerpts) will have legal consequences! The author.


I don't think Mr. Grodecki had the intention of turning one of the famous/famed Japanese boy love manga into a movie. But it surely looks as if he did!

The plot is simple: a runaway boy gets trapped in the vicious circle of prostitution, alcohol and drugs as he goes from rags to riches and back again. Still, the many sub-plots almost overload the film with high-piched drama and heartbreak. Everything you can think of in the Rise And Fall spectrum is there: seduction, rape, addiction, lust, perversion, betrayal, violent death, true love and fake love.

Still, the natural acting style of the non-professional performers (mostly RL hustlers and pimps) prevents "Mandragora" from being just another smooth, polished "coming-of-age-in-the-gutter" flick. To watch the kids wallow alternately in high hopes of wealth and suffer unspeakable pains when their hopes are crushed truly is heartwrenching.
This movie is not for the voyeur who finds pleasure in seeing the decline of appetizing, sexy youngsters. Far from being sexy and stimulating, it is brutal, merciless and harrowing - yet the film possesses a kind of tragic beauty and achingly beautiful melancholy.

I recommend "Mandragora" not only to fellow yaoi manga lovers but to everyone who is unafraid to go through the heights and depths of a revealing, pleasantly "old-fashioned" drama.

This will make you sit up quickly.
Wiktor Grodecki's first actual 'film' of this genre is a decidedly solemn insight into the grungy underworld of Prague. The synopsis you will undoubtedly have read in other reviews of the same film, however I feel that what Grodecki is actually trying to portray through Mandragora has not been interpreted from all possible angles.
Mandragora can be either taken at face-value, whereby what you see is what you get: these boys have come to Prague in order to earn some cash and end up quickly being forcefully led into prostitution as the seemingly 'only way' to survive in this newly- capitalist country, or also looking at the reasons as to why they have run away in the first place. Sure, they may not be happy with their home lives but what possesses them to leave altogether (at such a young age- Grodecki refers to boys as young as 11 prostituting themselves) and set up a new life/existence in the seedy, unsafe neighbourhoods of the capital? Sure also, these families may not have much money to go around, but so do many families in other countries but you don't see their children running away to prostitute themselves, take part in porn films and eventually end up with some STD and in the worst case, AIDS, do you?
Grodecki's piece is a realistic, sensitive (and somewhat repulsive at times ref: blood and gore) portrayal of the darker-side of post-soviet era Prague, but I have to admit, despite the occasionally scratchy cinematography and poor translation of sub-titles (for those of us with a lack of Czech language ability), the young actors proved themselves reasonably professional. Although, at times somewhat unbelievable, Mandragora definitely makes for compulsive viewing and is something that everybody should be made to watch as you can really empathise with the characters and it will definitely leave you with that 'don't know what to say' feeling as the credits come rolling down the screen. Mandragora tackles many issues: drugs, sex, prostitution, homosexuality and grievance and therefore ranks high on my 'must see emotional film' list. It is even worth watching the film just to see the angelic face of David Svec, but don't just take my word for it.