Punk Never Ends! (Heroin Crust in Slovakia)
Those who enjoy soap-opera drama of people’s misery should grab a glass of wine and popcorn for the feature debut from director Juro Šlauka, Punk Never Ends! (Punk je hned!), a bleak, realistic look into drug addiction. It’s the perfect film to let kids know the glamorous life they could lead if they became an addict; stealing and living in a squalor, where even the cockroaches refuse to move in. It doesn’t glamorize drug taking or villainise those who are addicted, but instead depicts the situation as everyday life.
The main character is Kvičko (Pavel Kovačovský) who spends his days looking to facilitate his next fix, but his reckless actions come with consequences and as his past begins to catch up, things begin to spiral out of control. Some of his best moments are with dealer Šurdo who despite a difference in size and phocomelia, has a dominance over Kvičko. The natural, jovial interaction between the two are good to watch, although Kvičko’s dependency on drugs is where their friendship starts and ends. You can scope some of it in the trailer below, which unfortunately lacks subtitles but the presence should be clear.
Despite the raw documentary style, Šlauka incorporates some creative ideas, such as a traditional shot Kvičko’s son rolling a toy car off the table cutting to a scene of a real car crashing to the ground or one depicting Kvičko’s loss of reality when high, conveyed through riding his bike in reverse. Another notable moment is the upbeat scene where Kvičko is pursued by the police that works particularly well because of how it changes the pace. The film’s score maintains the punk theme to tie together its imagery and often builds momentum before coming to a deliberately abrupt end with a broken, but smiling, Kvičko.
Punk Never Ends! is a simple story but with the dramatic interactions between Kvičko and those around him, it keeps you captivated. Benefiting from a raw, documentary style it creates a downtrodden realism because sometimes you need to strip it back to show the reality of reality. Using guerrilla-style film-making and several non-professional actors (who themselves are drug addicts or alcoholics), it has a documentary feel that’s realistic and possibly all too real. A promising, fresh look into modern Slovakian film production.
Written by Phil the Reviler
Punk Never Ends! (2019)
Juro Šlauka (director)
4.3 / 5
