What is it? Czech period drama set during the Soviet occupation in the late 1960s.
Why you’ll love it: Although part of Walter Presents’ Christmas box-set season, this three-part drama based on real events isn’t exactly what you would call festive. But it is superbly made, acted and directed, and in every other sense a gift to viewers with an eye for real quality.
Eminent director Agnieszka Holland (look her up – she has directed everything from The Wire to The Killing) takes on a saga that is very personal to her as she was studying in Prague at the time the story takes place.
Things kick off on a chilly day in January 1969. Jan Palach, a 20-year-old student, walks into Wenceslas Square, pours a bucket of petrol over himself and lights a match, leaving behind a note that condemns the Soviet occupation of his country and his own countrymen’s willingness to accept it. He signs it “Torch No 1”, indicating that others will do the same if the people don’t rise up against their oppressors and call a general strike.
These three feature-length episodes depict a dark and tumultuous time in Czech history, when mothers howl over lost sons and every eye darts towards the door at the slightest sound, in permanent fear of arrest. We join the story at the grim fag-end of a decade that had promised new freedom, before the Russian tanks rolled into town, flattening hope as they went.
As is so often the case in these stories of proto-revolution, it is the students who show the only glimmer of defiance. Although it would take Czechoslovakia another 20 years to fully break free of communist tyranny, the energy and optimism of this bleak tale lies with the young, with Palach their emblem of sacrifice. Others preceded and followed him, setting themselves alight in the name of emancipation. But something about his story struck a chord with his fellow Czechs, seeing hundreds of thousands join his funeral procession and a permanent memorial to him erected in the square where he died.
Shot entirely on film stock that is seemingly made from mud, coffee dregs and ground-down filing cabinets, the muted pallet of the social realist historical drama is turned up to 11 here. Or rather down. Banishing all bright colours, the cinematography captures the general pessimism perfectly, but, while often harrowing, this is not a purely austere viewing experience.
Holland’s eye concentrates on the humanity in this story, the struggle on those faces, the fear, but also the insolence. And considering this is a story triggered by self-immolation, she is restrained in her handling of those awful moments, preferring to catch sight of the horror out of the corner of the camera’s eye. We don’t need to look into the face of someone who has chosen such a painful way to die to know what it means.
Where? Walter Presents on All 4.
Length: Three feature-length episodes available now.
Stand-out episode: The first episode builds slowly and with absolute restraint, taking care never to sensationalise this important story.
If you liked Burning Bush … watch: Fartsa (Netflix), Frozen Sky (Walter Presents on All 4).
