Agnieszka Holland's 'Burning Bush' gets Warsaw premiere

Agnieszka Holland (centre in glasses) with cast and crew of Burning Bush at Grand Theatre, Tuesday: photo - PAP/Stach Leszczyński.

“This is an important film for all of us. Every nation has its own story about the road to freedom,” said Polish president Bronislaw Komorowski after the premier of the three-part mini-series at Warsaw's Grand Theatre.

Jan Palach (1948-1969), was a philosophy student at Charles University in Prague when in August 1968, Soviet Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia after a period of political liberalisation in the country known as the Prague Spring.

In Prague's Wenceslas Square on 16 January 1969, Jan Palach covered himself in petrol and set himself alight, in protest against the Soviet invasion.

He died three days later in hospital.

Burning Bush, the Czech Republic HBO made mini-series about the life and death of Jan Palach, will be aired in Poland, beginning on 3 March.

On Tuesday night, the first two parts of the trilogy were shown at the premier.

The 64 year-old Polish director Agnieszka Holland – known for her films In Darkness (2011) The Secret Garden (1993) and To Kill a Priest (1988) - was a student in Prague during the Soviet crackdown and protests that followed. (pg)

source: PAP