Charlatan

Directed by the acclaimed Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, this film chronicles about life of Czech herbalist Jan Mikolásek (1889 - 1973), who healed hundreds of people using herbal remedies. Co-production between the Czech Republic, Poland, Ireland and Slovakia, it was selected to represent the Czech Republic in the category of best international film at 93rd Academy Awards.

Winner of five Czech Lion Awards, including Best Picture, 'Charlatan' shows how Mikolásek analyzed plants, using his intuition, which allowed him to develop remedies and recipes that helped save many people, along with recommendations on changes in habits of life such as diet or daily exercise.

Initially he was recognized by the society of the former Czechoslovakia, because among the patients he helped to improve was the president of the former Central European country, Antonín Zápotocký, who was imprisoned in a concentration camp and suffered from scabies. The diagnostic and elaboration methods caught the attention of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. After Zápotocký's death, Mikolásek was arrested by the president's successor, Antonín Novotný, who accused him of being a charlatan and taking advantage of people, being imprisoned for fraud and tax crimes in 1959. He was released in 1963 and he died in 1973.