Magdalena Sodomkova: All my work is trying to make people active

Magdalena Sodomkova is a Czech journalist and a non-fiction writer. She is well known for her project “Mathematics of Crime” – a true-crime podcast and book – which reveals a series of mistakes in the Czech jury system that have caused unjust convictions. An excerpt of her book was translated into Ukrainian through the Connecting Emerging Literary Artists (CELA) project.

Sodomkova recently visited the Kyiv Book Arsenal as a participant of the CELA program. We spoke with her about her impressions of the festival, recent projects, and the importance of keeping readers aware of injustice.

This article was produced with the support of the International Festival Book Arsenal in the framework of the CELA program.

Chytomo: Your project – Mathematics of Crime (Matematika zločinu) – first appeared as a podcast, then as a book and TV series. How different was it for you to work between these three genres?

Magdalena Sodomková: I was first working at a newspaper where I published separate stories on related topics. At that time, I changed jobs regularly as each media outlet was bought by local oligarchs.

I felt the need to find a frame or genre that would showcase the situation fully. Not to present one incorrect case, but to highlight the systemic problem in the Czech justice system. 

RELATED: What young translators and writers in Europe are focusing on: A summary of the CELA Program in Prague

So I came up with the idea together with Brit Jensen, a Danish documentarian, that a true-crime story podcast would be the perfect genre for it because we would have hours to explain everything. 

We managed to get full audio recordings from all the courts we were interested in. It was a full week of listening for us. We used these authentic recordings in the podcast. For the listener, it was like being in the courtroom. We also confronted and questioned the people we found in the case files. Czech radio refused to air it; they censored it. Later we published it independently as a podcast and it gained immense popularity.

I still had a lot of facts that I couldn’t put in the podcast, so I decided to write a book to show this history more fully, complete with more evidence.

The book and podcast attracted filmmakers, and they made a complete fiction story out of the project. The TV series was quite successful, which was a major satisfaction for us since in the beginning, public opinion was against us. People could not believe that in a Czech democratic system of law, injustice like this could be possible.

Chytomo: Could I describe you as a person working with injustice?

Magdalena Sodomková: Indeed, I hate injustice. I was born in communist Czechoslovakia, so we were surrounded by injustice. Even in the podcast, there is a judge who said, “It was great during communist times – I could sentence anyone and that person would never have even a chance to complain.”

RELATED: Jan Kravčík: When you lose the cultural war, then the nation is totally lost

The golden rule for a reporter or investigative reporter is to check that everything is just and people are not misusing their power. This is a control mechanism that helps ensure continuing justice. If we just give up on it, we will end up with a dictatorship. We have to care.

MS in PEN Ukraine, discussion organised by Czech centre in Kyiv

Chytomo: In your case, you really succeed in making the existing injustice visible. How did you accomplish that, and what instruments can a journalist use to be heard? 

Magdalena Sodomková: When I initially wrote newspaper articles on the topic, I felt they didn’t have an impact because people weren’t seeing the full picture. So we decided to do a podcast and build it like a detective story.

Our success (The Mathemathics of Crime podcast has more than 500,000 downloads  –  ed.) started a huge wave in Czechia of these types of crime stories. 

On the one hand, it worked because people love detective stories. For another, there was no propaganda in it. Often with detective stories, there is a view of a policeman that shifts to police propaganda. 

In addition to these points, in the TV series Mathematics of Crime, the director Peter Bebjak cast very famous actors, like Jiří Bartoška, who is something like the Alain Delon of the Czech Republic. That helped to grow the audience.

Overall, it was a long journey that, in the beginning, looked completely hopeless.

Chytomo: What do you think about the Ukrainian audience in this case? How can the book, Mathematics of Crime, be relevant for them? 

Magdalena Sodomková: I hope it’s universal. We all need justice. But I understand – talking about Russian crimes in Ukraine – it is such a different story, such a black and white story. 

Chytomo: But your recent project is more connected to the war topic, isn’t it?

Magdalena Sodomková: Yes. After working on the Mathematics of Crime, I moved to Iraqi Kurdistan. I did not want to be in the Czech Republic. Back then, I didn’t feel very safe. My apartment was robbed, and it was not clear if it was as a result of my investigative work. 

Olya Futoran pitching Mathematic of Crime to Ukrainian publishers

So in Iraqi Kurdistan, I was working with the French Laotian photographer, Lâm Duc Hiên, who had been working there for 30 years. We also worked with French documentary filmmaker John Paul Lepers on the movie Kurdistan Mon Amour. 

I spent four years working on a documentary book with Lâm Duc Hiên and Leslie Lepers that was recently published. In French, its called Kurdistan Mon Ami, and in Czech, it is In the Land of Pomegranates: Iraqi Kurdistan.

In the land of Pomegranates is about Iraqi society after the war. There were so many refugee camps for the people who survived ISIS and all the different religious struggles. At the same time, it was calm – finally there was no more conflict.

Chytomo: How did you come up with the initial concept for the book?

Magdalena Sodomková: Well first and foremost, it’s a photo book by Lâm Duc Hiên, the photographer. He was a humanitarian worker in Kurdistan when it was bombed by Saddam Hussein. At that time, starting in 1991, he was also taking pictures of the local people.

Later on, we were together searching for these people and trying to find out what happened to them. Some of them emigrated. Two of them became president: Jalal Talabani became president of Iraq after the fall of Saddam, and Nechirvan Barzani, who is the current president of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. 

It was fascinating to search to explore what was behind the picture, and find out what really happened to all those people.

I think it’s really quite interesting because who would be so bold as to share their story with a random reporter? Especially when they can be such heavy stories. We were able to build new connections with many of those people.

Chytomo: What did you do with all these stories?

Magdalena Sodomková: So we took the stories, but then we wanted to give them back. 

MS with Myroslav Laiuk

We hired a Kurdish translator, Bayan Salman, and made half of the book French and half Kurdish. We wanted people to read and authorize the stories. The Kurdish people have been oppressed by the Arab Baas regime  for many years., They didn’t have much liberty in their own language. That’s why it is very important to tell the story in their own language.

This is, I think, what I’m seeing a lot in Ukraine. Which language is your identity, and which language is being imposed? 

Chytomo: And what was the feedback on this book?

Magdalena Sodomková: We wanted to give the book to all the people in the book, but that’s a very expensive proposition. But we had a very lucky occasion.

One time, we presented the book to the owners of the restaurant Hiror in Erbil, who are also in the book. One completely unknown person stood up and said, “I’m buying 50 books.” And we said, “50? We don’t even have 50 books.” He then said to Lâm Duc Hiên, “No, I want to give you money for 50 books, which you can then deliver to the people you believe should have them. Especially in France. Your book is like a window to our culture and I want people to look.”

We had the opportunity to give away the books, and people started making Instagram stories and speaking up about it. Lâm had many interviews in the local press. The Kurdish people appreciated this because there were not many photographers who would give them this attention over the past 30 years. 

It felt like we were connecting to a memory of the nation by collecting stories of their history and building an archive of collective memory. Soon there will be an English-Arabic translation. 

Chytomo: In war, it is common for the winner to rewrite the collective memory and erase personal stories. Have you spoken about this matter with Ukrainian reporters? 

Magdalena Sodomková: Yes, I have spoken about this with writers and reporters. I really admire Ukrainian professionals because they cannot isolate themselves from the situation. It’s a constant pressure.

RELATED: 13th Book Arsenal: Talking about understanding and when experience cannot be explained or translated

I’ve traveled to Ukraine as a reporter for the past 20 years, reporting on elections and other political situations.

MS at Book Arsenal

I feel guilty that I didn’t do enough.. Together with Lâm Duc Hiên, we were in Ukraine when the war started. Maybe two months – one month at the border in Przemysl with the refugees, and after we went to the Kyiv area and to Bucha, Borodianka, Makariv, and Hostomel.

After that, I couldn’t find the strength to go back.

During this Book Arsenal, I’ve seen how people are resilient – how they are tough and, meanwhile, how they are enjoying themselves even in this situation. How passionately they dance and read. 

Chytomo: What has been the most insightful part of the program for you? You come with an enormous experience, and there were many emerging writers in the program. What was it like to exchange your experiences with them?

Magdalena Sodomková: This program is for emerging literary artists, and in this field, I’m a beginner. I work as a journalist, and overall, I haven’t written many books.

I was thinking of trying to write fiction. I think I would be more protected. All my experience working in war and conflict zones, with politics and other tense topics, has made me think about switching from non-fiction to something else. 

Here at the Book Arsenal, I’ve discussed this with other artists like Myroslav Laiuk. He told me, “Oh, no, I was writing fiction and I switched to non-fiction because it’s more powerful.” Then I spoke with poet, translator, and academic Ostap Slyvynsky, and he said, “Why make a good story weaker by turning it into fiction? Some stories can be done as a documentary only.” Nonfiction just needs courage. So they basically advised me to be more courageous and not give up, which, in fact, maybe I wanted to hear.

I read the stories that were translated into Czech within the CELA project, and I thought about what could be my next path. Overall, it was fascinating to meet all these people and see what they think about the world and how powerful words can be.

Chytomo: Can you give some spoilers about your next book?

Magdalena Sodomková: A topic of my new book is similar to Mathematics of Crime. 

I don’t want to spoil too much, so I will say that this book will be connected with Czechia and Iraq – connected to the stories hidden by propaganda during communist times. And some of these stories are still hidden today, you know?

I want to describe how people can be ignorant of other cultures and what consequences this can have. I think it is very relevant for us today, even for Czech people – being just one train ride away from the Russian war in Ukraine, and still we are somehow not really alert and aware of what is going on.

Maybe all my work is dedicated to trying to make people more active, to be aware that every single one of us can make a change.

Pictures from Kyiv by Lam Duc Hien

Copy editing: Terra Friedman King