Charlatan

The Czech Republic in the 1950s. Long queues form every day outside the villa of the famous faith healer Jan Mikolasek (Ivan Trojan) in Jenstejn. People who want to be treated by him have to bring a clear bottle of their urine. Mrs Muhlbacherova (Jaroslava Pokorna), a healer from his home village, had taught young Jan (Josef Trojan) how to judge urine by its color and turbidity and what herbal treatment can be derived from it. With the help of a lamp, the healer examines each vial, dictates the diagnoses and a special treatment plan for each patient to his assistant Frantisek Palko (Juraj Loj). He even gives some of them money for a holiday by the sea or in the mountains. Even now, when a new political wind is blowing in the country, he has no intention of retiring. But the newspapers, which are subject to communist censorship, vilify him as a charlatan. One night, Mikolasek and Palko are arrested. He is accused of poisoning Comrade Strohal, a long-serving member of the Communist Party. In truth, those in power are suspicious of his extravagant lifestyle and his homosexual relationship with his assistant. When it turns out that there never was a patient Strohal, the defendants gain hope.