The author of Ashes and Diamonds.
The director, who gave birth to the Polish School of Cinema and the Cinema of Moral Disquiet.
An uneven, but always passionate artist.
A soldier, who was never afraid of challenging a brutal dictatorship directly.
A friend of Ukraine.
It seems that he was a fighter by his very nature. His father, an officer in the Polish Army, was killed in Katyn. As a teenager, Andrzej was an orderly of Armia Krajowa in Radom and Warsaw. His debut – A Generation (1955) – initiated the so-called Polish School of Cinema. The next picture, Kanal (1957) and Ashes and Diamonds (1958), which were the true images of World War Two and the post-war Poland, became sensations and won prizes at film festivals in Cannes and Venice. And Man of Marble (1975) and Man of Iron (1981) are direct slaps to the Communist system.
Artistic and social fairness were always the basis to Wajda’s work, no matter whether he was filming a political or military drama, or comedy, or film adaptations for classical literature. He did not betray this inner tuning device when filming Katyn (2007), which he presented in Kyiv by himself. Personally for me, this visit became one of the strongest cinematic experiences. Incidentally, Wajda then said wise and precise words on how, in his opinion, one should think about difficult and controversial pages of history:
“There was an unprecedented thing in Moscow, during the premiere of Katyn, and it was very touching. After the film ended, one of the viewers asked the audience, which had 450 people in it, to stand up and make a minute of silence in memory of the fallen in Katyn. And the whole audience stood up. This proves once again that we had to show the film there. Undoubtedly, there will be different perceptions, and we are ready for it. After all, the film is to create discussion. And this discussion continues in the press, in different memories, in the publication of the materials related to this crime. Another purpose of ours was to incite a discussion in the artistic sphere, we tried to provoke an artistic reflection on all of these events. Such reflection would help to ensure that we put up with these events for good, and accepted them to some extent into our hearts.”
Rest in peace.
