Directed by Agnieszka Holland. Reviewed by Paul Sorrell

Based on the true story of a Czech herbalist and healer who gained a wide following during the 1930s, Charlatan will perhaps be remembered for its individual dramatic episodes rather than as a wholly convincing portrayal of an exceptional man and his turbulent times.

Relying heavily on flashbacks, the film charts the career of Jan Mikolášek (1889–1973) played by Ivan Trojan. A herbal healer — he refused the title doctor — who was able to diagnose and treat hundreds of patients a day simply by examining their bottled urine against a strong light source, always delivering an accurate diagnosis. At the end of this medical production line, patients were given packets of herbal medicine, often pre-sorted into mixtures appropriate for their condition.

Although Mikolášek’s seemingly miraculous methods heal thousands, no one, it seems, will accept him for who he is. He offers his skills free, yet people question why he is apparently well off. He claims that his healing powers are based on an encyclopedic knowledge of plants, yet asks his clients to believe — faith, he says, is half the battle in regaining one’s health.

Jan’s intimacy with his male assistant, František Palko, is also suspect under a regime where homosexual relations are proscribed. And can a man who treated high-ranking Nazi officials and their families be trusted in post-war communist Czechoslovakia? Christianity is also added to the mix, albeit a little awkwardly. Although Mikolášek professes not to believe, after sex with Palko he is seen kneeling in penitence beneath the cross on a bed of sharp stones. Pledging the efficacy of his cures, he nonetheless appears riven by doubt.

This complexity of character is, however, undermined by a vein of melodrama that at times makes this film feel more like a stage play. I felt that the often traumatic experiences that shaped the protagonist’s calling and the contours of his unconventional personal life could have been handled more subtly and in a way that made the connections between events less predictable.

Mikolášek’s “powers” eventually prove too much of a challenge to the state, which claims all power for itself, and the notorious healer and his assistant are arrested and brought before the courts on trumped-up murder charges — events in which Palko seems oddly complicit.

While not a must-see movie, Charlatan raises some important moral issues that are worth considering in our own time and place.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 255 December 2020: 28