Near Prague, 1950s. Herbalist Jan Mikolášek has enjoyed a long career alongside his younger assistant—and lover—František. But when regime change sees Mikolášek fall out of favor, a state investigation threatens to expose his secrets, and puts the men’s clandestine relationship through a final test.

Reviving the tired biopic genre, Agnieszka Holland’s intriguing film is as disciplined as its detail-oriented subject. Mixing the midnight blues of nocturnal interrogations with the sun-washed greens of lovers’ trysts, Charlatan refuses to simplify the contradictions of a many-layered life.