Agnieszka Holland's Burning Bush (2013) is a first rate dramatic production with a solid screenplay, great acting by the whole cast, great direction, and great cinematography.
No "implied message" or esoteric symbolism was necessary here, because the literal, historical storyline had it all up front in spades.
I read the Wiki article about Czech Jan Palach, and this historical docudrama hit all the salient historical points about this brave young patriot's dramatic self sacrifice and its aftermath. Obviously this screenplay stretched quite a bit to fill in the historical details with contrived dramatic scenes, but I myself detected no unreal embellishments or exaggerations relating to the basic historical facts. This film was very realistic and the screenwriter obviously felt that the simple, literal story of Jan Palach was just good enough to sell itself.
Overall, this film is a very engaging and compelling drama about the Czech people's enduring struggles in the face of the invasion of their country by Soviet troops in 1968, and the severe Soviet repression in its aftermath.
This dramatic production was originally a three segment made for TV mini-series that was strung together here as a continuous 4+ hour film. But the drama is so riveting and compelling that the time just flew by.
No "implied message" or esoteric symbolism was necessary here, because the literal, historical storyline had it all up front in spades.
I read the Wiki article about Czech Jan Palach, and this historical docudrama hit all the salient historical points about this brave young patriot's dramatic self sacrifice and its aftermath. Obviously this screenplay stretched quite a bit to fill in the historical details with contrived dramatic scenes, but I myself detected no unreal embellishments or exaggerations relating to the basic historical facts. This film was very realistic and the screenwriter obviously felt that the simple, literal story of Jan Palach was just good enough to sell itself.
Overall, this film is a very engaging and compelling drama about the Czech people's enduring struggles in the face of the invasion of their country by Soviet troops in 1968, and the severe Soviet repression in its aftermath.
This dramatic production was originally a three segment made for TV mini-series that was strung together here as a continuous 4+ hour film. But the drama is so riveting and compelling that the time just flew by.