CineStar in the Czech Republic strongly rejects the accusation that it declined to screen a movie for allegedly "racist" reasons

Speaking to news server Romea.cz, Jan Bradáč, CineStar’s executive director in the Czech Republic, has rejected the accusation, calling it artificially drummed up. In the video posted to TikTok, Godla said: “Hi, ciao, folks, everybody is writing to me here to say how much you all like Bastards. So that’s super, but some of you are writing to me here to say the cinemas aren’t showing it where you are. Well, that’s because you probably have CineStar there, and CineStar apparently doesn’t want Gypsies at the movies.”

“Is it because we’re black? Is it because we blacks are performing in it? Why won’t they give us a chance? Folks, this Bastards is absolutely super,” the video continued.

Director Tomáš Magnusek then reiterated that same accusation on Luboš Xaver Veselý’s online “xtalk” program. Jan Bradáč, CineStar’s executive director in the Czech Republic, has rejected the accusation as artificial and untrue.

“Our company’s position on this entire affair is quite simple. CineStar runs cinemas to a standard that we do our best, from our positions in upper management, to maintain at the level we have set, and we are an absolutely privately-held entity. It is our right to freely decide what we will or will not choose from Czech distributors to put onscreen in our cinemas. What happened to Bastards 4 is that, just like many other films over the last 20 years or more, it will not be shown in our network. I do not personally feel any need whatsoever to discuss the reasons for that decision in the Czech media space,” Bradáč told Romea.cz.

Bradáč also emphasized that CineStar is not a racist company. “I am personally responsible for what appears onscreen and what does not at CineStar. In the case of this film, I made the decision and I discussed in detail with the distributor that we will not be showing Bastards 4, and I am clearly declaring that it is not for racial reasons,” he said, adding that CineStar cinemas have screened the stories of people from all over the world irrespective of their ethnic origin, race, religion or sexual orientation.

Speaking with exaggeration, he then gave the example of the recently-released blockbuster “Avatar 2”. “Coincidentally, I am able to cite a recent example where we were very happy to put on our cinema screens and we are still playing a film where the vast majority of the characters have blue skin and the film is breaking the all-time sales record,” Bradáč said, adding that he would not continue any public discussion of this artificially-created subject.

Magnusek’s most recent release, just like the previous installments of the series, is facing harsh criticism. “The ‘Bastards’ (Bastardi) movie franchise is the worst that Czech cinematography has ever produced, and until recently it was just a trilogy. It is the worst in artistic terms, in filmmaking terms, and in terms of the role it is playing in Czech society. Actor, director and screenwriter Tomáš Magnusek’s pathological artistry has had the opportunity to mature for 10 years and has achieved a completely new dimension with the fourth sequel, subtitled ‘Reparation’ (Reparát),” reviewer Martin Svoboda has written, for example, who goes on to call the movie “a truly epic culmination of the director’s messiah complex. The protagonist may be a brutal murderer, but he is depicted not just as the only person who can protect the Romani community from the rest of the world, but as the only one who can save them from themselves. This is, above all, about insulting Romani people, about a racism that is not based on repugnance, but on a sense of superiority.” 

The gala premiere of this fourth sequel in the Bastards franchise was held on Tuesday, 14 March at the Slovanský dům in Prague. The Cinema City multiplex is housed in that mall on a major street in the center of the capital.