One Way Ticket

Colour, HD CAM
Czech Republic, 2010, 84 min
Section: Czech Films 2010 - 2011

Synopsis

Pavel Gregor is etched into the history of the Czech drug scene for discovering the crystalline form of Pervitin (methamphetamine). Thus "improved,” this drug, nicknamed piko, went on to cause the deaths of thousands of people. Police officer Fífa is a member of a drug squad that has been closely monitoring Gregor’s activities for two decades. And frontman of the rock band Vitacit, Dan Horyna, has been struggling with drug addiction for years.... Tomáš Řehořek planned his film as a feature-length documentary about three men whose destinies were determined by drugs, one way or another. The dramatic twists in the stories of these real protagonists later inspired him to combine documentary interviews with dramatised sequences, mirroring the harrowing descent to the very bottom, and the journey back from hell to the land of the living. The film charts the history of crystal meth in the Czech environment, from initial experiments in closed communities to the utter havoc it caused in people’s lives. In creating his dark film vision, Tomáš Řehořek also took on the roles of screenwriter and cinematographer.

About the director

Tomáš Řehořek (b. 1987, Kyjov) studied at the Zlín Film School, but he was already making medium-length films at secondary school in Ostrava which were awarded at amateur festivals (Escape – 2002, Stairs – 2004). His feature debut was the psychological drama Changes (2009), for which he undertook the roles of screenwriter, director, cinematographer and editor. Screened at festivals in Paris, Brussels, Atlanta and elsewhere, the film also had Czech actor Karel Roden as producer. Together with Filip Malásek, Řehořek shared in the editing of the film Eye in the Wall (2009) by director Miloš J. Kohout. After the drug drama One Way Ticket he filmed the black comedy Czech Made Man (2011), inspired by the true story of a man who, after 1989, transformed himself via various scams from a petty Prague thief into a multimillionaire.