Fighting the Invisible Enemy

Systems, political systems - and nobody to reach behind the wall. Perhaps all of you once had to battle with some system, a set of ridiculous rules... The movies chosen for this week are way beyond that - their main characters have to undergo a journey to the unknown with uncertain results.

Burning Bush
A mini series by Agnieszka Holland inspired by the events that followed the tragic burning of the student Jan Palach in January 1969. An extraordinarily saddening event that only worsens with the family being persecuted with false accusations of a communist politician. Palach´s mother´s only hope is to redeem her son´s memory and cherish that her son´s sacrifice wasn´t in vain.

The Sleepers
In this pick as well, we visit the Communist Czechoslovakia in 1989 when the revolution was already expected. A mini series depicting the fate of a dissident family throughout this era. Marie, one of the daughters who formerly emigrated to the UK, is now returning to Czechoslovakia with her husband to visit her family after long 12 years. During this visit they have an accident and Marie wakes up in a hospital finding out that nothing is as she knew it. Her husband disapears and she has to start searching for him. Very engaging drama.

Erased
In 1991 after Slovenia’s independence there were couple of thousand residents of Slovenia who were formerly residents of Yugoslavia. They were no longer recognised and were supposed to obtain citizenship of the new state. A majority of them did. Those who did not were eventually removed from the system and lost all the social and civil rights and were no longer administratively recognised.
The story brings us to Anna who reaches a maternity hospital to deliver her child. During admission she is not found in the system. Her existence is unknown and so becomes her relationship to her newly born daughter is. Heartrending.

Photo: IMDB

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