Burning Bush

The most interesting part is the first one when it's still about Palach and his fate. What follows in the remaining two parts is a somewhat tedious exposition that the communists were real bastards and managed to manipulate everything they wanted to. And so Palach's and Zajíc's actions feel really unnecessary. It's filmed excellently, and Pauhofová was perfectly cast. But it’s four hours long? That's a bit much, considering the central conflict is unwinnable. (10/31/2014)

About Jan Palach’s deed. To achieve appropriate detachment from Palach’s deed in literary terms, we needed the view from outside of the Polish writer, Mariusz Szczygieł. And to achieve detachment in terms of cinema, we need the view from outside of the Polish director, Agnieszka Holland. And when we need... That’s partially true, but apart from the director it is a Czech film and finally thanks to Hulík we can say that we are now able to come to terms with historical skeletons in our closet (and we have lots of those!) like many, mainly the Germans, have been doing over the past years. No, it’s not quite filmed in a completely detached style, but her and there a little dose of pathos and pigeonholing characters works just fine; especially since they have time for this only in episode one where it is understandable. Unarguably the most important documentaries to have emerged in recent years and maybe not the very best (even though after the third “Normalization" episode I thought it probably was), but even so, full of powerful “unobtrusive" scenes and details which we certainly don’t see every day. P.S.: I’m glad that at last someone found the courage to give the powerhouse of the Theater in Dlouhá and one of the most talented actresses of her generation, Jaroslava Pokorná more than one line in a movie; and about time too. (01/28/2013)

By the end, I was fidgeting a bit, but that was due to the movie theatre seat - otherwise I can say almost without exaggeration that I watched the film version of Burning Bush without moving for almost three and a quarter hours. That's how haunting I found this extraordinary work, and still do a day later. Of course, seeing the series version, pretty much one episode at a time, maybe (and that’s a big maybe) some of the flaws would show up, because perhaps I would have time to notice them. But this way the film didn't give me a single pretext. The actors, the script, direction, set design... Everything at a very high level. The first third was the best, but the rest was definitely not a disgrace to the film. I give it five of the purest stars. (11/14/2013)

Two of the most difficult tasks, namely avoiding thoughtless accusation and not falling into The Search for Lost Time, came out with flying colors. From getting to know individual characters, I went through the effort of at least partial understanding of the more negative ones until I was hanging on every word or gesture of Pauhofová and Pokorná, and just wished that this story could have a different ending than what history had determined for it. I'm just sorry how many motives Vojta Kotek takes on his shoulders in the student line. There are just too many of them, and what's worse - he can't handle a single one of them with dignity. (03/27/2016)

An epitaph to the dark past of the Czechoslovak nation. A past that took the smile off the people’s faces and yet thirty percent of them want to return to it. It’s sad that a foreign filmmaker had to be hired to capture this past in a dignified manner. Agnieszka Holland confirms her status as a quality dramaturge, and you can sense from the film that the subject matter is close to her heart. Considering it’s a TV production, Burning Bush is well written, convincingly acted and visually attractive, making it worthy of the big screen. I was most impressed by the first, most human third. (10/10/2013)