In Banger, he took viewers on a wild drug journey that was miles away from any prevention campaign. Lecko may have been surprised when director Adam Sedlák made an educational series for Czech television about the dark side of addictive substances. But even in the recently cited Adikts he did not slip into moralism. In the interview he also describes his upcoming projects on young politicians and the band Orlík.
In the Adikts series the question arises as to whether a drug addict must have personal experience with drugs in order to be able to help drug addicts. Does a director have to have experience with addictions to make a convincing film about them?
I think that if the topic of drugs had not touched me in any way in my life, it would be visible in my projects. The Adikts series, for example, talks about it in a very stylized, hyperbolic form, but if you look away from its formal side, you will find that it is authentic. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be an experience with drugs, but rather with addiction as such. You can become addicted to anything, whether it’s sports, shopping, or even a relationship. This is what interests me. I’m fascinated by people who struggle with an obsession.
Drugs have already played a major role in his award-winning film Banger. Did you hesitate to re-enter the same river?
If I were thinking about my next purely arthouse project, I probably wouldn’t deal with the drug issue anymore. However, I considered Adikts from the beginning as a commissioned series for which I was approached. I treated it like a commissioned work. My task was to complete the thesis assigned to me by the Czech Association of Insurance Companies and the National Center for Drug Control. However, I don’t think I would repeat myself, in fact the series allowed me to accomplish some things.
The Adikts are part of the Abbreviations prevention campaign, initiated by the Czech Association of Insurance Companies and the Police of the Czech Republic. In interviews for the film Banger you said that it makes no sense to warn young people about the negative effects of addictive substances, because they will always experience them anyway. Have you hesitated whether a project with an educational purpose is right for you?
Yes, when representatives of the Czech Association of Insurance Companies contacted me, I asked them what they wanted to convey with the campaign. They told me they care about prevention, which isn’t meant to show that drugs are bad, but rather that they are shortcuts, which I found nice. Of course they gave me some conditions. For example, the police decided that at least one character should die, preferably in a car accident while under the influence of drugs. But I tried to conceive the series so that despite everything it wasn’t moralizing. That’s why I also chose a stylized shape that initially depicts drugs as superpowers. If you set the story in a strictly realistic world, it might feel heavy.
After all, even the Czech Association of Insurance Companies and the police of the Czech Republic were aware that the first intimidation plan does not work and, if the campaign is to reach the target audience of young people, the message must be conveyed to them in a non-violent way . They understood that it should not resemble the recent campaign by the Czech Railways against spray-painted trains with the slogan: Even your mother would paint it better. They wanted Adikts to be the catalyst for the entire campaign, to evoke emotions. Therefore, they perceived any controversy to benefit the cause. They knew the series would be talked about.
Adikts tells the story of addiction studies students who steal experimental drugs in liquid form from the school laboratory, but whose effects are permanent and cannot be turned off. Each of the heroes will therefore take on a different substance depending on what they are missing in their lives. Were you more interested in these deeper psychological reasons that lead people to drugs?
Exactly. When I sent the scripts of the individual parts to the campaign promoters, I often received comments from them to show more of the consequences of drug use. Instead, I’ve always been more interested in the reasons why people take them. At the same time, I worked with the idea that to turn off its effects you need to immerse yourself in yourself and discover what is the empty place that needs to be filled. If, after watching the series, young viewers ask themselves why they seek drugs and do not simply answer that it’s fun, I will be completely satisfied.
At the same time, the series presents a political battle between a professor of addictionology, who coins the slogan “dead addict, good addict”, and his colleague, who, instead of repressing, tries to understand addicts and be their guide on the road. to detox. Adikts therefore also reflects different approaches to drug policy.
Yes, on the one hand there is a more liberal approach, which more and more states are starting to lean towards. I think the Czech Republic is among them, considering that our national anti-drug coordinator Jindřich Vobořil recently spoke out in favor of legalizing cocaine. Other countries, of course, still follow a rather repressive path, which we deliberately took to the extreme in the series. However, to a large extent, we are still based in reality. Just look at the Philippines, where only a few years ago President Duterte called for the killing of drug addicts.
“If young viewers, after watching Adikts, ask themselves why they are looking for drugs and don’t simply answer that it’s funny, I will be satisfied,” says Sedlák | Photo: Czech Television
The series can already be seen on iVyslínia Czech Television. From January 24th it will be broadcast on ČT1 and only after ten in the evening. Which target group do you think the broadcast could reach at this time? After all, young audiences will watch it more on the Internet.
I really don’t know. ČT1 recently broadcast Banger after 10pm and almost no one saw it. I myself thought of Adikts from the beginning as an Internet series that people watched all together in one evening. The fact that they will even put them on TV screens I completely rejected and do not promise anything about it. The iVyszílá platform seems much more suitable for similar formats. I personally downloaded the Danish Public TV app to watch their series and it’s great.
You told me that you’ve been so busy with Adikts lately that you haven’t had time for other projects. In the future, however, you would like to make a film about young politicians. But won’t he end up with drugs?
Of course, this can happen too. But what fascinates me most is the question of what power can do to a person, especially when they are young. That’s why I like foreign series like Succession or Industry. In the Czech Republic, of course, everyone remembers the Dominik Feri case, and that’s also one of the reasons why I postponed the topic for a while. I think this topic is much broader. As part of my research I met, for example, Pavlo Bém, who entered politics at the age of thirty-five as mayor of Prague 6. He told me interesting things and offered to read the script when I finished it and give me notes on it. I also met other politicians, but I prefer not to name them all.
Interestingly, when I asked them if a young person should enter politics, the majority said no. At the same time, today there is a lot of talk about how young people are missing from politics, because the next generation, which will stay here longer, is not sufficiently represented. But there is another side of the coin. There is a term MP leasing. Imagine that you are twenty-one years old, you have never worked in your life, at most part-time somewhere, and suddenly you find yourself in the House of Commons, where you receive, for example, one hundred and fifty thousand a month. Plus, you know you’ll get the same salary for the next four years, so you take out a mortgage and suddenly you’re extremely easy to blackmail.
You would also like to make a feature film about the Orlík gang. Do you think you can do it?
This is my dream project. I talked about it with David Matásek, who is open to the film. But Daniel Landa refused. I haven’t even had the chance to meet him yet and explain to him what my motivations are and how I would like to take it. He probably assumes that I, like all journalists, am interested in knowing whether the band members were racist or not. However, I would like to talk above all about the friendship in the film. I hope to meet him one day to explain it to him.
The film Banger won her the Czech Film Critics Award for Best Director a year ago and she was also nominated for the Czech Lion in two categories. Has the award opened the door for you to do other projects or is it still just as difficult to do them?
I think Banger opened the door for me, for example, to an offer for the Adikts series. But I got this one before the awards were given out. So I’m not sure they hold any weight these days. In my opinion the only weight they have is on the shelf where you display them. After all, no one cares about the Oscars anymore. More and more strange films have been made in recent years.
So what is important for a young director?
When your film has a certain impact and relevance. It doesn’t necessarily have to be about being in theaters. 83,000 people came to Banger, which is amazing considering how much it cost. But above all we talked about him. Although the average romantic comedy has many more viewers, no one talks about it in a week.
I read that you once made a decision: if you can’t make a living as a director before you’re thirty-five, you’ll get a job at an agency. You are now thirty-four years old and your birthday will be in six months. How’s it going so far?
It seems good. It seems that you won’t have to give up the cinema.
Watch the trailer for the Adikts series
Trailer of the Adikts series. | Video: Czech television
2024-01-21 09:02:03
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