buygay.com

Review

Since the fall of Communism, Prague has become the center of male pornography in Europe. While working in the sex industry is not automatically abusive, it often is for the down-on-their-luck, often homeless teenage boys who fall into the lure of "easy" money and become the prey of older, wealthy men. This deeply disturbing yet mesmerizing documentary, from the director of Not Angels but Angels, offers us a glimpse into this terrifying world of child and teen prostitution. At the core of the film is Pavel, an immoral man who is a police coroner by day and gay sex filmmaker by night. We are given a tour of the set of one of his porn movies while we listen to his coldly detached approach to his work, including his "explanation" for forcing the boys into unsafe sex acts. We also hear from the teen hustlers - youngsters whose morality, self-esteem and health are threatened by their economic desperation and choice of work. Like his feature film Mandragora, Grodecki straddle that thin line between condemnation and fascination, an approach that eroticses the very subject he wishes to expose. (Czech with English subtitles)

 -- Raymond Murray