New documentary takes close look at Czech BDSM scene

Thursday saw the premiere of a new documentary on HBO Czech Republic by respected filmmaker and cameraman David Čálek. Called Heaven, Hell – the film was aired as part of HBO’s Bez Cenzury (Without Censorship) series tackling issues rarely examined on the big or small screens. Heaven, Hell is a year-long look into the lives of four people deeply involved in the BDSM scene – that is bondage, domination, and sadomasochism.

'Heaven, Hell'

Director David Čálek stopped by the Czech Radio building this week; I asked him whether it was difficult to persuade his subjects to take part in his film.

“You could say that the journey through the rabbit hole wasn’t as difficult as I previously expected. In the beginning, I was really unsure whether it would be possible to really talk to people about their sexuality openly because what happens in bed… what really happens nobody really talks about. These people opened their Pandora’s Box first before we began filming and then of course also on camera. And a lot of very personal things are in the film.”

Was it important for you as a filmmaker that their fetishes were very different?

“Actually, fetishism is one of the main bridges between them and broader society, our world and theirs. All guys like cars, women like jewelry and everyone has his own fetish which guides their unconscious lives and sometimes I get the feeling that fetishism itself is the engine which drives our society, our modern Western society. It is often the reason people buy things which they don’t need.”

Any object in an ad can be fetishized, including people…

'Heaven, Hell'

“And ad companies are well aware of it. People on the BDSM scene, by contrast, work with fetish but not unconsciously like the rest of us: they use it to be someone else for a while, to take on a different persona in a dominatrix’s. Sometimes the change can be one of opposites: someone who is the head of a big firm, running a company with many people, can end up on the floor eating from a bowl like a dog, just the opposite of real life. So fetish is the thing that takes you through the rabbit hole.”

There were limits to what you could show: I wonder, is the reality far more brutal?

“Yes, I would agree: the reality is much more tough than what you see in the film. I was up close to my subject for a year, so I had to be very careful because there were some things that were rude or obscene that were no longer as shocking for me. But my editor and I had to be very careful to the sensitivity of the audience seeing it for the first time. It would be too shocking and not god for the film itself if it drove people from the cinema. It’s difficult to answer: a lot of material was not used. We can’t show everything, we just give an example. We are talking about a different lifestyle but the purpose of the film was not to shock the people seeing it.”

To me, activity in BDSM seems a bit like a drug and I couldn’t help but think ‘this can’t have a happy ending’…

'Heaven, Hell'

“You know, everybody is different: someone who goes to the pub every week can stay at the level of five or six beers but goes not further. But someone else takes it to the next level and becomes an alcoholic eventually ends up in the hospital. It’s the same thing with sexuality. It’s a question whether you are strong enough to not become a ‘slave’ of the S&M scene {laughs}! That’s funny but you have to master your desires: if it’s sexuality or drugs or something else and you are not free: you are guided by someone are not free, I think that’s the end of life. Freedom is the greatest art we have and people from the S&M scene know this because they really play with freedom and its limits. If you play with these intimate matters and dangerous subjects you also have to be careful. By contrast I think these people – or at least those I met – are very, very free. If you admit you are ‘deviant’ in a society where that is very shocking, that in itself is a kind of freedom.”

I wanted to ask you, if there were other filmmakers who were working in the field… I do remember one film from the ‘90s called Fetishes by Nick Broomfield; other than yourself, is anyone focusing on this subject matter in film in the Czech Republic?

“Not that I am aware of. I have heard of the Broomfield film, but we uncovered no similar such project here before.”

Nick Broomfield - 'Fetishes'

What has the feedback been like? I am sure people have responded in emails and so on…

“I was most surprised by feedback from ordinary people – those not involved in BDSM. Very often they were just regular people with families and children who told me it helped them see their own lives in a different light. For me this was very rewarding and gave me joy: that it wasn’t a waste that the three main subjects in my film opened up about their sexuality and their personal lives.”