Screenwriter Šifra about Miki: I talked to Černák for dozens of hours. Even the unbelievable scenes are reality

There will be a second part

The film, which has been in cinemas in Slovakia since 15 August, mainly depicts the first half of the 1990s, when Černák started his business and criminal activities. The upcoming second part will focus on the more politically motivated crimes of the second half of the 1990s. Černák received a life sentence for six murders in 2009, and in 2019 he confessed to taking the lives of 16 people in the 1990s.

The film begins in the early 1990s, when Černák, a bus driver by former profession, bought two buses and several trucks. Gradually, he begins to get rid of inconvenient people, such as a pub owner who wanted to testify against his brother.

A kind of repetition in the film consists of funerals, first Czernák buries his father, then his brother. "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died," the priest reads the same passage from the Bible a second time.

They also met during the pandemic

The character of Černák in the film was played by Milan Ondrík. "In Slovakia, it is always said that we need to talk about our dark past in order to learn lessons, but the present suggests that we are probably bad artists because we are unteachable. I am happy that the film resonates and that it will help us, for example, to take a step forward in our future," Ondrík said.

The roles of other characters were played by Michal Kubovčík, Anna Javorková, Gregor Hološka and Rebeka Poláková.

Foto: TASR/Dano Veselský Slovenský herec Milan Ondrík, ktorý stvárnil Mikuláša Černáka

Screenwriter Šifra said he was close to the subject because he grew up in Vernár, a village about ten kilometres from where Černák lived and was active. "I went to see him in person about six times, Milan Ondrík three times. We were in contact throughout the whole pandemic, it was dozens of hours of conversations with him," Šifra said.

He added that everything unbelievable in the film is based on conversations with Černák, such as the scene in which Černák returns from a meeting with his mistress and, while undressing in front of his wife, discovers that he is wearing women's panties.

The groundbreaking 1990s

Producer Zuzana Mistríková said that they wanted to make the film accessible to the general public, she also presented the upcoming second part. "The film has a sequel that takes us into the darkest and most politically connected Mečiar period of the second half of the 1990s in Slovakia. We strongly feel that the 1990s laid the foundations for the problems that we as a society are still struggling with today," Mistríková said. She added that in the first week, the attendance in Slovak cinemas surpassed one hundred thousand people.

Černák, who is serving his sentence in Leopoldov prison, wants to see the film, according to the filmmakers, but that is not yet possible. "But he will see it in time," Mistríková said.

Černák repented in court

Earlier, Černák said he was ashamed of his dark past and wanted to testify in some trials. He also published a book in which he wrote about bribing police officers, prosecutors, judges and state officials and about the activities of his gang, which allegedly controlled a significant part of the Slovak underworld in the 1990s.

News server Novinky.cz reported that Černák, 55, applied for parole in May this year after serving 25 years in prison, but the hearing was postponed indefinitely.

See the report from May 2024 about the fact that Cernak will still wait for freedom.