With her dystopian Netflix series 1983, the director has imagined a Poland in which communism never fell. But are these dark fantasies of creeping authoritarianism becoming reality?
In October last year, Piotr Szczęsny, a 54-year-old chemist and father of two, doused himself in petrol in front of the communist-era Palace of Culture and Science in central Warsaw then set himself on fire. The act was a protest against creeping authoritarianism under Poland’s populist right-wing government. Szczęsny died in hospital 10 days later.
“I love freedom first and that is why I decided to immolate myself, and I hope that my death will shake the consciences of many people,” he had written in a cogently argued manifesto that doubled as a public suicide note. In Poland, sympathisers hail him as a successor to Ryszard Siwiec – another Polish family man in his 50s, who set himself on fire in Warsaw’s national stadium...
In October last year, Piotr Szczęsny, a 54-year-old chemist and father of two, doused himself in petrol in front of the communist-era Palace of Culture and Science in central Warsaw then set himself on fire. The act was a protest against creeping authoritarianism under Poland’s populist right-wing government. Szczęsny died in hospital 10 days later.
“I love freedom first and that is why I decided to immolate myself, and I hope that my death will shake the consciences of many people,” he had written in a cogently argued manifesto that doubled as a public suicide note. In Poland, sympathisers hail him as a successor to Ryszard Siwiec – another Polish family man in his 50s, who set himself on fire in Warsaw’s national stadium...
- 12/5/2018
- by Christian Davies
- The Guardian - Film News
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