The Forest Killer: A Cinematic Exploration of Czech Serial Killer Viktor Kalivoda

Already these opening pictures of the film Lesní vrah, shown in cinemas from Thursday, suggest that the producer and screenwriter Zdeněk Holý and the director Radim Špaček they had big intentions. The long shots cause suffocation and relaxation, but gradually. Romanian Oleg Mutu, author of some of the best European plays of the previous decade, is behind the camera 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days at least Death of Mr. Lazaresco. But as a recent Czech film showed Snake gasin which he also participated, the presence of a star cinematographer does not necessarily lead to excellent work.

The creators – much like the authors of the film Husband and wife of Stodol about another pair of Czech serial killers – they decided to do away with any biographical sauces and throw the viewer into the middle of the action. However, the result is diametrically different.

While the director Petr Hátle watched two people who live on the margins of society get involved in more and more robberies, violence and murders in Manželí Stodolový, Lesní vrah takes a closer look detailed about the last year of Kalivod’s life. This includes both completely unique activities such as shopping in a convenience store, as well as less common ones, such as riding the C line of the Prague metro with a pistol wrapped in a newspaper .

As for the Stodols, the result was a dynamic film based on the “toxic romance” of the two main characters, Lesní vrah focuses on rather random scenes from a person’s life.

The authors refer to the smallest tradition of cinematography, for which the phrase empty narrative was coined. This style, which emphasizes not telling a story, twists and turns is clear, but on the viewer living in the film space, since it must be reading and explaining small nuances of possible meaning, we started talking and writing about it. in the middle of the decade zero. That is, just at the time when Kalivoda was killing.

It would seem that a similar filmmaking method might be the most appropriate way to investigate a man whose motives for murder have never been clarified. But the creators are not giving the audience an unknown world with an unknown main character. On the other hand, they show the most famous information: that Kalivoda was from a middle-class background, that he had depression and suicidal tendencies. And we all know where the story will go.

It can be understood that the filmmakers are not trying to turn Kalivoda into a monster. The story of an above-average intelligent man who wins 320,000 kroner in the then-popular You Want To Be A Millionaire quiz and buys two Glock 34 pistols with which he travels through the traffic of Prague to easily confused by a similar explanation.

At the same time, the creators are not consistent in their minimal beauty. After all, the director Radim Špaček, director of drama Hand spells or A golden descendant, he never adopted a similar style. In a short time the calm rhythm of the observation is interrupted by a long passage from a television competition, where the tempo and the humorous presentation are adapted to local customs. After this strange compulsion, the authors return to the beauty of random everyday scenes from the life of the main character, who sometimes wants to kill himself, sometimes others, but does not find the courage until the end.

However, since it is a true story, it is easy to get the impression that Lesní vrah only – especially by Czech standards – presents well-known facts from Wikipedia in a bold formal way. And so, for example, a hero plays a role Michal Balkar he randomly stops by the side of the road to greet an old colleague in uniform, only for the viewer to discover that person was a police officer.

Kalivoda remains a mystery to the viewer until the end. But is it a mystery bigger, more mysterious, richer in meaning than it was for the news listeners of the time?

When he rides the subway with his Glock wrapped in newspaper, he looks like a poor, insecure person who’s afraid his lunch will fall out of his hand.

In such scenes, the camera focuses on, for example, a pair of guys who are talking and leaves the main character somewhere in a corner out of sight. Another time at the shooting range, on the other hand, Kalivoda makes a bold move on the owner, who sets a target for him in the form of a human figure, by shooting him in cold blood.

It is surprising that several domestic contributions to the true crime genre have been created in a short period of time, and all of them defy norms. Linear The Markovič Method: Rising and pictures Husband and wife of Stodol they are similar to The Forest Killer in that they do not portray serial killers as monsters or terrifying sociopaths who can be easily dismissed and unjustly convicted.

Špaček’s film is about this in the most radical way. Despite the amazing work of the cinematographer Oleg Mutu, he finally shows the least clear concept. It shows the tension of someone who has been close to pulling the trigger many times, no matter where he was aiming.

The film’s Kalivoda is a quiet loner who speaks only when necessary, does not say hello, and at first appears to be a quiet person. Is his attitude a lack of self-confidence, a slight mental disorder, or just a certain contempt for people? Hard to say. But in the end, the film, which is very short, does not give us so much space for this path between the meanings that are offered.