The film, shot in the Czech Republic in spring and summer of 2019, is a biopic inspired by the true story of a controversial healer and herbalist played by six-time Czech Lion winner Ivan Trojan, and spans 40 years of the healer’s life. The screenplay was written by Marek Epstein.

The lead production company is Marlene Film Production, a young production company founded in 2014 by Šárka Cimbalová, with Cimbalova and Kevan Van Thompson as producers. The film was coproduced by Film & Music Entertainment (F.&.M.E.) through its Irish office. The Slovak coproducer is Livia Filusova of Furia Film and the Polish coproducer is Klaudia Śmieja of Madants. The film had a reported budget of 3 m EUR, and received its initial development funding from the Czech State Cinematography Fund and was selected for the Berlinale Coproduction Market in 2017. It received 110,000 EUR from the Slovak Audiovisual Fund and a 222,000 EUR production grant from the Polish Film Institute.

The film is distributed by CinemArt in the Czech Republic and Gutek Film in Poland. The sales agent is Films Boutique. The film premiered at the 2020 Berlinale and was selected for numerous international festivals across Europe and Asia. Charlatan has a cumulative box office of nearly 1.7 m EUR.

Production information:

Producer:
Marlene Film Production (Czech Republic)

Coproducers:
Film & Music Entertainment (Ireland)
Madants (Poland)
Furia Film (Slovakia)
Czech Television (Czech Republic)
RTVS (Slovakia)
Barrandov Studio (Czech Republic)

Credits:
Directed by Agnieszka Holland
Script by Marek Epstein
DoP: Martin Strba
Set: Milan Býček
Costumes: Katarína Štrbová Bieliková
Editing: Pavel Hrdlička
Music: Antoni Lazarkiewicz.
Cast: Ondrej Trojan, Miroslav Hanuš, Josef Trojan, Frantisek Trojan, Juraj Loj, Václav Kopta, Jan Budař, Jan Vlasák, Otmar Brancuzský, Tomáš Jeřábek, Martin Myšička, Jaroslava Pokorná, Pavlína Štorková.