Burning Bush
Hořící keř | Agnieszka Holland 2013
Czech Republic | Czech with English subtitles | 234 minutes

In January 1969, Czech student Jan Palach set himself on fire to protest the Soviet clampdown that followed Prague Spring. The terrible historical moment that formed the backdrop of Palach’s heroic action is recalled to vivid life in this passionately brilliant mini-series. Agnieszka Holland and writer Štěpán Hulík trace the ripples of Palach’s defiant gesture throughout Czech society and the moves and counter-moves it set in motion by coercive and the coerced, the terrified many and the courageous few: the young Dagmar Burešová (Tatiana Pohofuvá) represents Palach’s defiant mother (Jaroslava Pokorná) in a libel suit against a member of parliament (Martin Huba); her law partner (Adrian Jastraban) is strong-armed into collaborating in order to protect his firebrand daughter (Jenovéfa Boková); a secret police officer (Ivan Trojan) grows disillusioned by his unpalatable job.
Holland was in Czechoslovakia at the time these events took place and it makes a difference: you feel like you’re breathing the very air of Czechoslovakia under totalitarian lockdown.