Agnieszka Holland: 'It's hard making films about communism'

Agnieszka Holland: photo - Polish Radio/Przemyslaw Golawski

Speaking at a screening in Washington of her latest work, Burning Bush, which explores the fate of Jan Palach, a Czech student who set himself on fire in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion of 1968, she said there is still a long road ahead for filmmakers.

“For a long time we have been unable to produce films about communism, and we are still incapable of making one that would be accessible to an international audience,” she told the TVP public broadcaster.

“Perhaps in 50 to 60 years we'll succeed, but we're not ready at the moment.

“Eastern Europeans have yet to finish the job of analysing communism,” she said, arguing that “we lie about our past.”

Holland noted she was delighted to be offered the chance to make the Burning Bush mini-series in the Czech Republic by HBO.

The drama principally focuses on the struggles of Palach's family in the wake of the student's death in Prague in January 1969.

The Polish director had been studying film in the Czech capital at the time of the Soviet invasion.

Meanwhile, Holland argued that the best films about communism were made before the Iron Curtain actually fell.

Holland cited two Polish films, Andrzej Wajda's Man of Marble (1977) and Ryszard Bugajski's Interrogation (1982). The latter was banned by the communist authorities, compelling the director to emigrate. (nh)