The Damned

Colour, 35mm
Czech Republic, 2002, 98 min
Section: Czech Films

Synopsis

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.

About the director

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.