Watch Mandragora For Free

Too much of everything

hyped garbage

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The Polish director Wiktor Grodecki has largely dedicated his filmography to the depiction of young male prostitutes in Prague, and Mandragora is his first feature film after several documentaries. Thus, it seems very realistic, even for those not familiar with the topic/situation, and some unpleasant scenes seeming exaggerated are apparently not... Prague is considered as one of the finest cities in Europe, but we see only some of its beauty. The main venues are railway stations, cheap hotels, bedroom suburbs... Still, some customers and their dwelling places are wealthy, and so the misery of the boys is particularly stressed, plus the inclusion of AIDS, booze and drugs being accustomed to people in porn and escort business. Due to this and the existence of pimps, the real "workers" never become wealthy, but, contrary to common belief, it is not easy money, particularly if your sexual orientation is different. The plot, however is not smooth, and some performances are excessive, although the main characters are well elaborated and boldly performed (e.g. Marek, David, Krysa). The ending is distinctive and witty, but a bit fictitious to me. True, I am sure that circumstances have changed with the appearance of the Internet, with less "dealings" on the streets and bigger awareness of dangers and diseases, but still, Mandragora can be regarded as a good warning film to both those eager to engage themselves in prostitution and those eager to take on sex trips to economically less countries.

The elegantly filmed story provides a very thought provoking and heart wrenching look into the treacherous lives of runaway boys on the streets of Prague. Although this is the story of one runaway boy, it represents the stories of hundreds of runaways.The boy, Marek, runs away from his father, whom he feels is mean and does not understand him. He arrives in the big city of Prague where, because of a lack of money, he is immediately seduced/tricked into selling his body. What follows is the story of how he falls deeper into the underground world of prostitution, violence, porn and drugs.

Warning: could be spoiler (?).This was quite possibly one of the most depressing movies I have ever seen. Although I wasn't expecting "Pretty Woman"-like pablum, I certainly wasn't expecting to have the scenes from, and emotions wreaked by, this film haunt me for days afterward. Everything from the scene with the teen girl prostitutes ("everyone has it") to the statue scene, to the movie scene, to the final shots in the train station platform & bathroom, as well as the loneliness, desperation, fear, resoluteness, madness, cocksuredness, apathy, greed, predation, depravity, futility/ inescapability and helplessness... This movie reminded me of Dawn: Portrait of a teenage runaway and Alexander: the other side of Dawn, and the companion movie, Sarah T.: portrait of a teenage alcoholic (Yay, the movies I remember from childhood...), but was much more graphic and brutal. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your take on it), none of the characters seems to learn anything from his (or her) experiences, and thus none are redeemed/ redeemable in any way.There wasn't a single completely sympathetic character in the whole film, although some of the main characters (David, Marek, the father) were fairly multi-dimensional: neither all good nor all bad. The father comes close to being a sympathetic character, but even his character is flawed; I particularly note his insensitivity to his son's pain, and his refusal to deal with the child's emotions regarding the absent (dead? run away?). Sure, his two bathroom scenes are touching, but one can only think of the kitchen scene (in his home), and how he dealt with his son in the flesh rather than as an abstract idea or through a surrogate-Marek.Marek and David are tragic products of their society, young men of little skill in a depressed economy, trading on their one marketable talent-- their smooth-skinned baby faces (and other body parts), yet they are likewise unsympathetic. Marek is a runaway, but from what, exactly? Sure, his father is cold and insensitive, but the home life doesn't come across as completely untenable. His feeling about his dad seems more like typical adolescent reaction to parental insensitivity, but certainly not something to resort to such desperate measures over. David's character is probably the most interesting; while he is self-seeking, he seems to be a friend to Marek in the best way he knows how (but still keeps his own needs forefront: if they conflict with Marek's best interest, "oh well"). David is the evolution of Marek, as Marek is the inevitable evolution of the final boy on the train platform.Some of the characters are caricatures, such as Krysa (and his family & home), Honza, the bar patrons in David's hometown, and the johns. They are overblown, noting particularly Krysa's arrest scene. This does not detract from the film, however, as the characters are more like amalgamations of characters than truly single persons.I felt incredibly drained after this film, part of this was not because of the characters portrayed in the film, but rather for the millions of unseen kids worldwide whose story this could be. From the runaways in the Haight and NYC and Seattle (and everywhere else) to the children (boys and girls) whose bodies are sold in the sex tour industry, from the people who sell their bodies to try to support their families in post-colonial, post-industrial, capitalist third world nations to those who sell their children to support their other children, this is their story in one way or another.The tragedy of this story is that it is true. Maybe not all of it for everyone, but it is true.

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.