Olga Hepnarová could be a name that doesn’t ring a bell. However, after 40 years it will be remembered once more. Olga was a Czechoslovakian young woman who was 22 when she drove a truck towards a group of people waiting at a bus stop in Prague. Her attack resulted in eight deaths, which was much less than what she originally intended. Her sentence marked a moment in the country’s history, since she was the last woman to be sentenced to death by hanging in Czechoslovakia. Filmmakers Tomás Weinreb and Petr Kazda have brought her story to the silver screen, attempting to demonstrate the situation that led her to committing this infamous crime.
There’s not much known about Olga prior to this film, yet it was enough to inspire interest regarding what went through her mind when she ran those people over. Originally, her psychiatric evaluation claimed it was an act of hysteria, but the story took a chilling turn when the medical professionals noticed Olga lacked any sign of regret, as well as the precision with which she had planned the assault. She had previously done the route driving another truck but had halted her decision when she realized there weren’t as much victims as she hoped for. She had also sent two letters to newspapers explaining her reasoning and her intentions. However, a delay in the postal service caused these warning signs to arrive too late.
The letter said:
“I am a loner. A destroyed woman. A woman destroyed by people… I have a choice – to kill myself or to kill others. I choose TO PAY BACK MY HATERS. It would be too easy to leave this world as an unknown suicide victim. Society is too indifferent, rightly so. My verdict is: I, Olga Hepnarová, the victim of your bestiality, sentence you to death.”
The last part of the quote inspired the title of the film, which has been extremely well received at the Berlin International Film Festival because of its black and white cinematography, as well as for Michalina Olszanka’s performance of a murderer that was both vulnerable and ingenious. Her reluctance to approach this role was similar to that of the filmmakers when contacting people who knew Olga, who died at the age of 23.
The stories compiled by the directors allowed them to take some artistic license to expand on the moments leading to the attack. In her letter, Olga was very clear that this heinous crime was her vengeance towards society as a whole, as well as her refusal to become another suicide victim whose name would be forgotten. But what had happened to make her feel that way? The Czech directors present a point of view that details how her parents ignored her during her childhood, how she attempted suicide at the age of 13, which ended in her being sent to a psychiatric hospital where poor social skills isolated her even more.
The simple narrative, pitted against nostalgic visuals, evokes a sense of the classic film noirs. But it’s the audience who becomes the detective discovering the mystery of Olga. We see clues of how she desperately tried to connect with others but was disappointed to a point where any empathy she had disappeared. Failing to create any sentimental bonds distanced her from the world and potential romantic partners. Olga was a lesbian, but not being able to understand her own sexuality further destroyed her psyche.
Olga’s story is still considered controversial in current Czech Republic and Slovakia, considering the territory has not become as desensitized to mass killings as other parts of the world where it has become a reoccurring tragedy. The filmmakers’ purpose was not to use a tragedy as a basis for a film. Instead, they created a modern fable that captures the dangers of someone being completely isolated from the world.
The actress portraying the protagonist found herself incredibly close to Olga’s life when she contacted the boyfriend of the woman she was playing.
The words that haunted Olga for most of her life transformed her as much as the ones she never received. Her inner self was torn down with each passing day to the point where she reached a point of no return. The film shows this in a great way that does not justifying her actions but refuses to judge her as rigidly either. The young woman killed eight people and, with the rise of obsession, trauma, issue, and social stigmas in this current society, we don’t know who might be the next person to commit an atrocity like hers.
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Translated by María Suárez
