With its candle-lit occult settings and ersatz Europudding of performers all speaking English, this preposterous thriller is like being trapped in a Ferrero Rocher advert – with a creamy Dan Brown filling. Kicking off with young novice Matteo (Radoslav Gavlas) being initiated into a tentacular secret society, Manipulation’s impenetrable shenanigans play like director David Balda’s attempt to recall the plot of a Da Vinci Code-style potboiler after huffing tailpipe fumes.
Directed by the iron fist of the Master (Pawel Lawrynowicz), the Prague-based order’s daily business is blackmailing influential figures and amassing power-bestowing information. Matteo is dispatched to infiltrate the Catholic church; good luck understanding precisely why. But after seeing his cultist father (Predrag Bjelac) threaten to torture a defector’s kids, Matteo has a crisis of conscience. Dispatched to Bologna by the Master for some illuminati R&R, the young prospect runs into his answer to Umberto Eco: circumspect Professor (Pavel Kriz), who gives him the lowdown on the corrupting influence of such cabals through the centuries.
The Professor believes the Master is seeking the alchemical secrets of Holy Roman emperor Rudolf II (the vials he is constantly swigging from presumably aren’t available from the hotel minibar). Considering it pertains to an all-illuminating conspiracy, Balda’s story is a dense yet vague mess, consisting of the Master’s espionage, the church’s counter-espionage and implausibly conducted press whistleblowing in the “Prague Times”. An over-stuffed gaggle of characters people these convolutions: after the Bologna stint, in which Matteo apparently strays into a gap year stock photoshoot, he falls for Anna (Anna Ctvrtnícková), daughter of a church librarian (Féodor Atkine) booted off the council for trying to warn them about a double-dealing priest (Heino Ferch).
The film is littered with priggish acting, sore-thumb plot contrivances and dunderheaded dialogue that comes over like the characters trespassing on their own narration: “The clouds seem to be gathering – and not just outside!” someone says. Admittedly, Balda shoots Manipulation with a smartly brooding look, and the film’s intrigues belatedly spark a little heat through force of accumulated twists. But as far as all-powerful sects go, this is more Eyes Sewn Shut.
• Manipulation is in UK cinemas from 6 November
