Telo bez duse

Keeping in mind that this was made in 1996 or so...the documentary is difficult to watch. I actually was able to only get through about 15 or 20 minutes before I stopped it.

The filmmaker seem to have a very open connection with the young men that were interviewed for this documentary - however - what make it difficult was not the candidness of the lifestyle and exploitation of these children. But it is almost a documentary skewed toward titillation for a certain audience, almost like it would have been shown in a back alley theater or something. Not sure why the movie interviewed the young men in provocative.....stances or positions.... rather than something more straight forward like an informative documentary. That really makes someone question what was truly behind the documentary.

As someone who is trying to help a 23 year old recover from that lifestyle, I can say the film is a very accurate representation of not just boy prostitution in Prague in the 1990s but of boy prostitution as such. I saw it, along with many other films on that subject, because I wanted to educate myself as much as possible and had exhausted all other sources of information I could think of. Of the docos I saw, "Body Without Soul" was the most in-depth. The 2 hours (maybe 2+, I'm not sure) went in the blink of an eye, the film draws you in. In that sense, it's easy to get through but otherwise it's beyond painful, it hits very close to home and it hits repeatedly. The fate of one of the boys being interviewed - the youngest, most articulate and most beautiful, of course - is particularly heart-breaking. I finished watching the movie a few hours ago and I'm hurting almost physically.

Contrary to what other reviewers have said, I would recommend this film to anyone and everyone because the truth of the matter is that however unsavory, the subject "Body Without Soul" deals with is one people should be a lot more familiar with than most currently are. I find myself wondering what those who voted 5 or worse are evaluating exactly, said subject matter or their own reaction to the film. If it's the former, I can only advise them to direct their negative energy elsewhere. The movie didn't invent prostitution, adult males did. If it's the latter - if Body without Soul made them feel bad enough to hate it - then they should have given it a 10.

First I watched "Mandragora" – an excellent, trough very depressing movie. Than being found of documentary movies I decided to watch "Body without Soul " – based on other user comments I expected this to be another dark and depressing masterpiece of Wiktor Grodecki. Instead it turned out to be very powerful documentary, with a lot of life lessons.

You might be surprised by my statement above and so was my grandmother when I discussed the film with her. She asked me – why was I watching such movies anyway – and my answer was – because I rather see it on the screen than get a real life experience like the boys shown in " Body Without Soul " . If some of them had seen similar movie before they decided to cell their bodies – may be they wouldn't have made the steps which brought them in the hands of the porno producers … That is why my opinion is that movies such as Body without Soul should be viewed by as many people as possible – as they are sure to make them think – about what they had just seen and if they could do something to prevent it happening to them or their friends or relatives.

Some of the boy prostitutes interviewed in this movie seemed to deal pretty well with their lifestyle and profession, other were making just the opposite impression. In the movie you can see an the interview with a pornographic film director – to my surprise he wasn't shown as the absolute evil – but rather as a person who makes his living from shooting porno( and working at the morgue ) – with his sins and mistakes , but still real and accurate character as all characters in this documentary are...

In «Body Without Soul», Wiktor Grodecki's second installment of his trilogy on male prostitution in the Czech Republic, the filmmaker tackled the industry of homosexual pornography in the country, and he was lucky to have the participation of Pavel Rousek, pornographer in his free time and medical examiner as his profession. Rousek is a character that alternates between the repulsive and the fascinating, but it is he who brings Grodecki out of porno-misery and his method of editing and using music.

Once again, Grodecki is talking about Death, about sex that neither procreates nor derives pleasure, but an activity done in front of a cheap camera, for little pay, with no protection and enduring physical abuse. In these times, in which life has depreciated to the point that anyone is killed for a peanut, in which people sell their bodies because they have reduced it to the category of mere shell, «Body Without Soul» is a timely product, even though 23 years have passed since its release.

Grodecki also had one more time a group of young prostitutes between 14 and 19 years old, who spoke with courage to the camera. Among them, there is a young man who, as the film progresses, reveals that he has acquired AIDS, while the others speak frankly of their lack of fear of Death. Then you have Rousek: the pornographer not only gave an interview, but also allowed himself to be filmed during the shooting of one of his movies and, even more impressive, at work in the morgue, in front of a corpse that he dismembered, while making parallels between both activities.

However, Grodecki could not lose the habit of mellowing, melodramatizing and manipulating the audience with fragments of the most tearful music ever composed by Albinoni, Mahler, Vivaldi, Allegri and Mozart. Not even the group Olympic contributed something cheerful, but the weeping ballad "Tears of Your Mother". Neither on this occasion, Grodecki tried to contextualize his documentary in time and place, on the economic, political or social situation of the Czech Republic. Where, how and why did these guys come up with the idea of practicing prostitution or appearing in gay porno? Out of the blue? Because of hunger, but why were they hungry? Simply because they are amoral, ignorant or cynical? There are no answers.

In spite of everything, there is a notable advance in «Body Without Soul» when compared to the first installment of the trilogy, «Not Angels But Angels». Despite the endless music and sound effects, both documentaries will serve as historical memory of the beautiful city of Prague, at a time when it was being eaten away by a contagious and lethal disease. Followed by «Mandragora», last part of the trilogy.

Some are ugly, some are attractive; some use drugs, some do not; some are stupid, some are average, some are smart. And all of them are teenage male prostitutes working the streets of Prague. Their clients consist largely of German, Swiss, and Dutch tourists in search of cheap sex--and for additional income they make pornos on the side. And along the way they are ripped off, abused, and degraded until they simply wear out.

Wiktor Grodecki's documentary BODY WITHOUT SOUL is a dark and disturbing look at life on the streets of Prague. The film consists of interviews with a dozen or so teenagers describing how they first began on the streets, how they drifted into prostitution and pornography. Some of the subjects seemed drugged; others are surprisingly articulate. The centerpiece of the film, however, is an extended interview with a pornographic film director who at first attempts to gloss over the unsavory aspects of his work--and who ends by unintentionally revealing just how vicious he actually is. The pornographer is also a pathologist, and the camera follows him into the autopsy room and films him at work. Grodecki then intercuts these scenes with scenes of him directing his latest film, thus making the point that these boys are no more to those who use them than so much meat.

Although it is exceptionally well done, I would hesitate to recommend BODY WITHOUT SOUL to a casual viewer. It is a moving film, a powerful testament re the old, old story of man's inhumanity to man... But many will find the autopsy scenes repulsive beyond their toleration, and I cannot imagine that many will watch the film more than once. Recommended, but as a rental rather than a purchase.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer