Body Without Soul

Honest insight into the subjects lives and a great demonstration of the coroner who was also a director producer that was interviewed and his thoughts on the existence of soul. If you are looking to be educated on human psychology and true lives and why people exist as they do on the fringes of societal norms, this is the film. This movie is intriguing and surprising, all at once

It broke my heart seeing what these young men would do just to have enough money to survive. ANd then when revealed hat one was ill, and the others really didn't care whether they became infected or not was gut wrenching. It also leaves you with questions...why did these young men, children really, leave their parents home in the first place (assuming most had living parents at the time). It is a rough documentary to watch. And the filmmaker filming the boys for German clients is such a sleazy character, it just makes your skin crawl. It really opened my eyes to what a happy and blessed upbringing I had, and to treasure every moment.

A heart breaking look at the effects of prostitution and pornography in the Czech Republic circa 1996. With an economy in shambles young boys - referred in the film as young as 11 - overrun the streets looking for money from tourists and porn producers to survive. Told in a series of interviews with street kids and a porn maker the story is one of violence, poverty and death. I have never seen an expose of the porn / prostitution industry that is so brutal and unflinching. This is not an easy story to watch, but it is worthwhile.

Cheaply produced and just bad all around. Is it sad yes is this produced well no. Garbage. There is a movie called 99 rent boys that is both moving and tragic and emotional and raw/real. See that movie if you want to see something that will shake you but you still can't stop watching it.

This film portrays the one of the oldest tragedies in the public, which occurs not only in the cities of the Czech Republic!True, the recent economic boom and recently won political freedom has re-opened Prague for tourism of its historic artand ascetic splendors. However, young men - and young boys are selling their sex to participate in the new standards of western consumerism most recent to Eastern Europe. For some, it is survival sex just to escape starvation. To hear such young men - and young boys speak for themselves is remarkable and spares no detail.

Actually shows gay pornorgrapher by night, pathology autopsy assistant by day slicing, butchering and cutting-up dead corpses in the city morgue for day job. If that doesn't earn five stars, I don't know what does...

These young males have no true parental guidance while growing up. It is easy to see they didn't have that type of sit down & explain things. I know this because I did not have Mature Adults who saw to it that I knew about predators, how to conduct myself in going to bat for myself to get the raises I should've gotten....how to protect myself against being used...the owners of businesses made large amount of money from my expertise & promised of raises etc & never keeping their word. I was a Woman I worked for different Engineering & Construction Companies...my work was Journeyman Electrician but I was kept at new comer pay. I Am the First Woman to be a Roustabout Foreman in the history of the Oil Field...I was the most requested especially when it came to trouble shooting....yet my pay was $5.25..a green horn employee. This docu' just proves the terrible extent of how awful adult males are...so much of them are predators & the only way this is going to change is the "MEN" will have to do this work. They must understand they have been led to believe false identities of what a Man is...basically nothing but predators. It is so few that are good. Our Children are in horrific danger.....there are far too many who are wanting your child-children & who will pay considerably to have your child for their twisted lusts. This docu' shows what is so wrong in our societies....boys being bought by adult males...who are being raped..taken advantage of...tossed away like taking out the daily trash. You can see it so well in their eyes...and hear it so easily in their voices that which is being spoken of beneath their words. It's the same attitude as our gov'ts & the very wealthy....these kids are a throw away society...who really cares what happens to them as long as who is wanting them for what get what they are after. It is a true tragedy & heart wrenching....the lost boys who will never be found b'cuz no 1 is looking for nor after them. Excellent Documentary...a real eye opener & a soul wrencher. I wonder how many of them are alive today

Honestly I just wanted the film recruiter to suffer or be cut up like the bodies he handled in the morgue. Though this movie detailed some of the aspects of this life I truly believe they left a lot out. When the Rousek, or whatever his name was, the guy doing all of the filming spoke about the people he sent the videos to, you got the feeling this was a crime syndicate and he was only a small roach in the scheme of things. He may have made crumbs but the piece of S* people he sent these films to made plenty and probably are still making money off of these young men. Life destroyed.

excellent

If you ever saw the film `Mandragora', this `Body Without Soul' documentary was its source. `Body Without Soul' is well-shot and very well edited, and I found it to be a fascinating insight into the world of gay prostitution and the making of pornographic films in the Prague following the fall of the Soviet Bloc.The film is prefaced by a quote from the late Susan Sontag: "All forms of serious art and knowledge - in other words, all forms of truth - are suspect and dangerous." And indeed, it is sometimes difficult in this film to reach the truth, as there are often contradictory statements from those giving testimony. One boy tells us how he started on the game when he was twelve, and moments later says he had his first experience when he was fourteen; another boy says he was forced to engage in oral intercourse but seemed able to freely object to any other form. Both shame and a sense of boastfulness stylise the words of all the boys, as one would expect of teenagers, but there is honesty too: Marek tells us it's "Money for nothing. Lots of it. And fast. I realised it was a job for me."Unfortunately, the director reveals his own lack of objectivity through his choice of music: thus we have Albinoni's mournful `Adagio', excerpts from Mozart's `Requiem' and Allegri's `Miserere' as if we are grieving lost innocence, and also some of the adagio from Mahler's `Symphony No.5' to emphasise the lovelessness of the boys' trade. If it was the director's intention to express subtly his disapproval, then he was foolish to show the places where the pick-ups are made: the bars, the arcades, the station, the park, and the swimming baths. But Prague in 2010 is no doubt no longer the Prague of the 1990s.But I found the film relies on instilling a sense of shame in the boys, as if that was the target for which the director was aiming. Certainly, many of the lads provide weird excuses for how they got into porn: one was just hitch-hiking, another did it because his friend needed money - and then goes on to boast that he had the leading part in four of his five films! I'm not an apologist for the porn industry, but it's clear that (if what they say is true) many seem to have been poorly treated: not paid what they were promised, threatened and intimidated, `forced' to perform without protection, and taken sexual advantage of by the director.It was a real coup for the film to interview one of the directors in depth, and a real coup to have found someone so honest about his dealings. Pavel Rousek tells us how he got into the business, admitting that his films are "short and ugly." He admits he is demanding of the boys and manipulative, and that he has to "slap them around a bit ... It's hard to keep them in check. They are sixteen-year-olds." He laments his lack of earnings, but one senses much of his profit must have gone on drink and drugs. His full-time job is as a pathologist. Working for the police coroner must provide an element of protection for his part-time activities: that, and having his house (where the films are shot) opposite a police station!He distinguishes two types of porn actors: the low-lifes, runaways, and criminals, those "who would do anything for apiece of bread. They would even kill their folks if somebody paid"; and secondly, the exhibitionists - "They're the best because they give a good show and won't steal anything." But Rousek has dreams too, and things become quite humorous when he discusses his imaginative screenplays. Yet his problem is that he has the wrong attitude. This is clearly demonstrated when we see him filming, for he is very demotivating to his performers, insulting their attempts to do a good job, treating them with no respect, and showing no concern for their welfare.Really, this is a story of lost opportunities. All the boys have different personalities, but they often have the same basic story to tell. Some are bright and could have done differently, others are losers who made, and will continue to make the wrong choices. But most of them demonstrate a large element of control over their lives, stating what acts are permitted and how much these charge. Many of the boys interviewed agree that they are selling their body, but not their soul. The pathologist-come-porn director says there is no soul, only the body. That's not the view of young David who now has AIDS. He says, "All hustlers care for their souls and forget their bodies ... When they see their mistake, it's usually too late."Some of the boys are lost in and to the big world; some have a cynical view and are fully conscious of the allure of money, one of them likening it to a disease: you have some, you want more. Some of the lads are in denial: one has slept with two hundred men and only four women, but thinks he is straight. Are any of them happy? Some, but most are not. But how far this reflects on gay prostitutes in Prague or instead on life in the capitalist west in general is difficult to gauge. What is clear at the end of this riveting film is that every single one of these boys does have soul.

This film has caused a certain amount of controversy when it appeared on television. Purporting to be a documentary filmed on the streets of Prague. A large pinch of salt is required. The story plot line has been floating round before and is no more typical of Prague than London, Paris or Berlin. The "boys" all appear to be actors, and the "top pornographer in Prague" appears to have no published films to his name (certainly not for "Man's Best" studio as claimed). If it is fiction, then it assumes you find rentboys degrading or degraded. And pornstars = rent. It also assumes that all gay sex is dirty. It was made by a German film company. Director Wicktor Grodecki (surely a Polish name not Czech) seems to only do Gay Sex is Grotty films.

Grodecki is intrigued with the male prostitution problem in Prague. This is the documentary which was adapted into the feature film Mandragora. The themes are very similar and can be traced into the plot of the fiction film. In this documentary he interviews boys who have become male prostitutes. He shows men following very young boys in public places, boys preparing for a porn shoot and the general grimness of their lives. Most of the boys are heterosexual, lured into the 'profession' by the prospect of money which never appears. They tell how they have been beaten, conned and infected but there is little explanation as to how they can escape the trap they are in- for this you need to see Mandragora which offers more in way of an explanation. What comes through in this film is the desperate nature of these boys lives. Some say how they enjoy the job, yet the lack of light in their eyes betrays them. They are trying to convince themselves as much as us. You see their bad skin, shaking hands and drug-blackened eyes. You hear voices changed by addiction and fear. And on top of this Grodecki intercuts this with an interview with one of Prague's main gay porn directors. He seems equally nervous of the situation but describes how he has to beat the boys in his films if they don't do what they want. He explains why they can't use protection in the films (the German market doesn't like it and he wouldn't get paid) and how he makes the money in each film... He is interviewed both at home and at his day job, performing autopsy's and this is the main thread which pulls the whole film together- he deals with bodies in whatever form. The prostitutes he films are just bodies, they have no soul and you are left at the end of the film with this unpleasant feeling. As one boy says when asked if he has ever loved a man- "Yes and I've hurt him many times." His eyes fill with tears and there is an unnerving pause. "That man is my father."I'm glad that I have seen this film because it explains the rationale behind Mandragora but its not easy viewing.