Andrzej Wajda

 Andrzej Wajda




A Generation (1955)

Kanal (1957)

Ashes and Diamonds (1958)



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3. A Generation (1955)


Andrzej Wadja's 1955 film "A Generation" is the first film in what many consider a "Three War Films" trilogy. The films all take place during the Second World War, which was only a decade prior. The film follows Stach, a working class peasant living in squalor under Nazi occupation in 1942 Warsaw. After he takes up thieving as an act of rebellion, he enlists in an underground resistance group against the occupying fascists. Inspired by the Italian neo-realists, Wajda filmed "A Generation" outdoors with less than ideal lighting and weather conditions. The result is a gritty visual format that matched the guerilla rebellion taking place in the story. 



2. Kanal (1957)


Despite being the first film ever made on the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, Andrzej Wadja's 1957 film "Kanal" was met with controversy with Polish audiences. Centering on a group of resistance fighters forced into the sewers as a last resort, "Kanal" is a bleak viewpoint of the heroes that died. To strengthen its credibility as an accurate depiction of events, the film's scriptwriter, Jerzy Stefan Stawinski, actually survived in the sewers as an officer in the resistance during this famous uprising. While Polish audiences certainly had a reasonable complaint against the lasting image of their heroes being covered in excrement, "Kanal" offered an unflinching viewpoint of what these men and women had to go through to fight against the aggressive fascist forces set out to exterminate them. 




1. Ashes and Diamonds (1958)


The 1958 Polish film "Ashes and Diamonds" closes out an unofficial trilogy in the filmography of Andrej Wajda. The trilogy, consisting also of 1955's "A Generation" and 1957's "Kanal" center on Polish resistence during the Second World War. The final installment of this trilogy, "Ashes and Diamonds" brings the themes of resilience and struggle from the first two films to a harrowing and bleak conclusion. The film centers on a young man deciding whether to assassinate a political opponent to his cause or to run away with a barmaid on the first day after the war ends. However, the film is more than just about one man: it is a tapestry of characters searching desperately for a newfound sense of meaning and purpose after having their entire lives destroyed by war, terror, and destruction. "Ashes and Diamonds" is a depiction of an entire country unable to move on from what happened to them, forever trapped by lost potential squandered by the meaninglessness of life and its chaos. 

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