Powrót Agnieszki H.

The subject and conception of the film: In May 2012, Agnieszka Holland finished the shooting of a three-episode series for HBO titled Hořící keř (Burning bush), penned by a young FAMU (Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague) graduate- Štěpán Hulík. The series treats about the events leading to death of Jan Palach, who became a symbol of the tragic protest against the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the troops of the Warsaw Pact. The action starts on the 16th January 1969, when Jan Palach set himself on fire outside the building of the National Museum in Wenceslas Square, and ends in 1971- more than a year after the dreadful events. All the scenes shown in the series are based on true facts.
The series is the first attempt to show these tragic events as a feature in Czech Republic. It seems symbolic that the director of this feature is Polish (a contemporary of Jan Palach), who was an eyewitness to the events that had become the base of the script. Few people may know that Agnieszka Holland was an active participant of the protests at FAMU (together with fellow Polish students of the Academy- documentary director Andrzej Zajączkowski, who, at that time, was making a film about a famous bard Karel Kryl, cinematographer Andrzej Koszyk and her cousin, also FAMU student- Jerzy Kowalski). She was heavily involved in the opposition movement; she communicated with Czech dissidents and made contact with a group of so-called taternicy. She was arrested in January 1970, stood the trial and got eight-month suspended sentence. A co-defendant in this trial, Laco Mravec (presently an adviser to President Klaus) was sentenced to 18 month imprisonment. He served the entire sentence. Agnieszka Holland spent almost 2 months in custody. She used her memories while starring in a legendary film Przesłuchanie (Interrogation) by Ryszard Bugajski. In the time of her exile, Holland hadn’t forgotten about her Czech friends – she kept in touch with oppositionists and, in 1989, she actively joined the Velvet Revolution.
Our film will be composed of several narrative layers. One of them is observation of Agnieszka Holland at work on the series, in another, we will return to the times of her turbulent youth. What kind of experience did she bring with her when she started film studies in Czechoslovakia as a young girl, and what experience did she take away with her? How those events, in which she took part, had imprinted her later works? As an example, we will use fragments of films like Bez znieczulenia (Without anestesthesia), Przesłuchanie (Interrogation), Gorączka (Fever), Aktorzy prowincjonalni (Provincial actors)… We would like to show the atmosphere present at FAMU at that time – it was the best period in the history of the Academy. The key to this story is the person of the co-director and cinematographer of the film. Jacek Petrycki is Agnieszka Holland’s long term friend and a contemporary. Once she said: ‘I became to like or even love this man right away. He is exceptionally decent and righteous and has an extraordinary sense of moral truth’. She will take Jacek Petrycki on a journey to the places of her youth; she will tell him stories of experiences of the past. It will be a dialogue of a famous director with the camera, behind which, there is her true friend. Documentary Powroty Agnieszki H. (Returns of Agnieszka H.) will be an attempt to cogitate their common youthful ideals, human need to live free and in truth, important life choices in situations of political pressure, and ordinary, human integrity in totalitarian times.