A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Release Date:
April 23, 1998
Original Title:
Rivers of Babylon
Genres:
Comedy | Drama
Production Companies:
ALEF Film & Media Group
Alef Studio Bratislava
Ateliéry Bonton Zlín
Markíza Slovakia
Česká televize
Production Countries:
Czech Republic | France | Slovakia
Ratings / Certifications:
CZ: 12+
Runtime: 102
Dark satire about bare-knuckled capitalism in the immediate post-Cold War era. Set just as the Communist government is collapsing, the film focuses on the brutish Racz, the handyman in a Bratislava hotel. Knowing that his job is insured for life, Racz turns off the building's heat and demands food, money, and sex to have it restored. The film is narrated by a pimp named Urban who explains that people in the former Czechoslovakia were so used to being abused that they simply put up with Racz's corruption. By the end of the film, Racz's fortunes have changed considerably. Instead of being a lowly worker, he is now a ruthless and wealthy businessman, unafraid to kill or kidnap those who get in his way.
Camera Operator:
Martin Štrba
Costume Designer:
Katarína Štrbová Bieliková
Director:
Vladimír Balco
Editor:
Dušan Milko
Makeup & Hair:
Juraj Steiner
Music:
Jaroslav Filip
Peter Uherčík
Novel:
Peter Pišťanek
Producer:
Marian Urban
Scenic Artist:
Milan Ferjenčík
Screenplay:
Peter Pišťanek
Marian Urban
Vladimír Balco
Sound:
Juraj Filo
Juraj Oravec
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Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.