Czech Films 2002 / Zatracení / Czech Republic 2002
A crime drama loosely based on true-life events surrounding a foreigner arrested for drug smuggling in an Asian country. The story, unfolding in an exotic though fictitious town, dramatises one young man’s road to prison after getting mixed up with heroin traffickers.
A young Czech tourist named Patrik Lovický is arrested at a fictitious Asian airport. Tour guide Tomáš Egermaier, the accused’s stepbrother, notices that one of Patrik’s suitcases makes it onto the plane. Held for smuggling heroin, Lovický vainly claims that he was framed, used merely to draw police attention away from a big shipment of drugs. After his return to the Czech Republic, Tomáš finds a video camera in Patrik’s suitcase with shots of his girlfriend Elena and her mother Michaela. By all accounts, the latter has connections with the international drug dealers who used the young man as a patsy. Originally duped by the whole affair, Tomáš eventually realises that everything is quite different than it seemed at first. . . . The filmmaker engages the situation on three planes: a video recording of the prehistory of the drug event, Tomáš’ efforts to help his imprisoned brother, and Patrik’s time in a tough Asian prison which threatens to become his permanent home.
98 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director Dan Svátek
/ Screenplay Dan Svátek
/ Dir. of Photography Tomáš Sysel
/ Music Roman Holý
/ Editor Alois Fišárek
/ Producer Pavel Melounek, David Prudký, Ondřej Šrámek
/ Production ČT, Whisconti, Holiday Films
/ Cast Jan Plouhar, Jan Révai, Isabela Bencová, Dana Vávrová, John Comer, Dennis Rudge, Erdem Bileg, Rob Das, Michaela Kuklová, Bořek Šípek
Dan Svátek (b. 1975) shot several documentaries and shorts after graduating from film school in Zlín, Moravia. His made-for-TV film, Owl River (1997), won a number of domestic and international prizes. He contributed the story Hope Eclipsed to the feature film, The Beginning of the World (2000), made by a trio of directors (with Pavel Melounek and Vladimír Drha); it tells of a man trying to regain his balance after being shaken while waiting for his medical exam results. In his feature debut, The Damned, Svátek sought to combine an exotic Asian location, a crime story full of intrigue, and an intimate study of a carefree young man who must now acclimatise himself to harsh surroundings.
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