Andrzej Wajda

In 1976, a young woman in Krakow is making her diploma film, looking behind the scenes at the life of a 1950s bricklayer... (imdb)

A worker becomes a "man of iron" forged by experience, a son comes to terms with his father, a couple fall in love... (imdb)

Maciek, a young Resistance fighter, is ordered to kill Szczuka, a Communist district leader, on the last day of World War II... (imdb)

A symbolic depiction of hell on Earth, set in the last days of the Warsaw uprising in 1944. (imdb)

Story of youths during the German occupation of Poland in the World War II who come to adulthood through love and adversity. (imdb)

A tale of ruthless rise of early industrialists at the turn of the century. It takes place in Lodz, the heart of textile industry at the time... (imdb)

Account of the last days of life of the legendary Polish pedagogue Janusz Korczak and his heroic dedication to protecting Jewish orphans during the war... (imdb)

Action opens in November of 1793, with Danton returning to Paris from his country retreat upon learning that the Committee for Public Safety, under Robespierre's incitement, has begun a series of massive executions, The Terror. Confident in the peoples' support, Danton clashes with his former ally, but calculating Robespierre soon rounds up Danton and his followers, tries them before a revolutionary tribunal and dipatches them to the guillotine. (imdb)

Several internationally known directors contributed to this generally adept and compelling series of five brief vignettes on love and its many ramifications. (All Movie Guide)

Film opens with the mad rush of haphazard freedom as the concentration camps are liberated. Men are trying to grab food, change clothes, bury their tormentors they find alive. Then they are herded into other camps as the Allies try to devise policy to control the situation... (imdb)

Written in a sharp, ironic style, REVENGE portrays those national characteristics that in time brought on many of Poland's national tragedies. Written for the stage, Wajda has changed very little and transferred practically the entirety of the work to the screen. (culture.pl)

Set in the late '20s. A thirtyish young man, who heads a small factory, faints at the funeral of a close friend. He decides to go home to his aunt and uncle for a while, but gets involved with a family of five women who had been in love with him at one time though he had apparently loved only one, who, unknown to him, has died since his departure. The women are mainly disillusioned with life or estranged from husbands while the youngest has a crush on him. (imdb)

A young doctor is tired of being sought by women. One night he meets a young girl who all but forces herself into his room where they talk of morals and love. But he loses her when he goes out to see some friends and then rushes madly around the city after her, only to find she has returned. (imdb)

This account of the events surrounding the 1940 massacre of captured Polish army officers in the Katyn Forest focuses on the story of a captain and his wife, who refuses to believe he is dead. A gesture of friendship within the harsh confines of the prison camp where Andrzej and his fellow officers are held will result in the mistaken identification that helps keep his wife's hopes alive. (oscar.com)

Set at the turn of the century, the story concerns a Polish poet living in Cracow who has decided to marry a peasant girl. The wedding is attended by a heterogenous group of people from all strata of Polish society, who dance, get drunk and lament Poland's 100-year-long division of Poland under Russia, Prussia, and Austria... (imdb)

A violinist in a provincial Polish orchestra, whose husband is the director of the ensemble, on a visit to the US ties up with the world- renowned symphony conductor. As it turns out he was once in love with violinist's mother. The conductor, a slightly unstable hypochondriac, returns to Poland to lead the provincial orchestra... (imdb)

Set in the beginning of the Wold War II, when Polish cavalry still fights with lances against the first German foot troops. Soon tanks give Germans the superiority and crush the daring horsemen. Tale is about a white thoroughbred horse that passes to various hands in a military outfit until he breaks a leg and is shot. (imdb)

This film is based on the masterpiece "Pan Tadeusz" written by Adam Mickiewicz, a famous Polish poet in 1830. (imdb)

A diffident 15-year-old girl from the countryside moves with her family to a high-rise apartment in Warsaw. As she tries to adjust to city life, she's befriended first by a wild, gypsy-like classmate, and then by the teenage daughter of entrepreneurial Poles.

Inspired by the tragic death of the great Polish actor Zbigniew Cybulski, this Andrzej Wajda film focuses on the behind-the-scenes lives of a director and his actors when they are disrupted by the mysterious murder of their leading man.

The story of the unfaithful murderess in a series of retrospective scenes incorporated in the main plot of the convicts' march to Siberia. (Andrzej Wajda)

As an aging woman married to a workaholic doctor by chance meets a young man who makes her feel young again. All of this is films by a director making a film about her which cuts in and out of the on camera and off camera drama.

Takes place in a prewar Poland. A tubercular young man comes to stay with his brother on a farm. He is in love with life and constantly plays 1930's music on a piano. He gets involved with his brother's problems and becomes the lover of a farm girl. The brother's dead wife may have had an affair with the hired man. His daughter will not confirm his suspicions. But the brother's death leads to his acceptance of the past, forgiving his wife's memory and making up with his little daughter. (imdb)

In May of 1983, a man turns 49 and, with his 17-year old son, journeys to the village in Baden that he left 40 years before. He wants to discover what happened then, the truth about an affair his mother had with a young Polish prisoner of war, how the authorities came to learn of it, the lovers' arrest, and the aftermath. While his son takes Polaroid photographs, he retraces the steps of his childhood and interviews those who should remember. (imdb)

This political drama is taken from the classic story from Feodor Dostoyevsky, but liberties have been taken and many secondary characters eliminated. The author's condemnation of a godless society and his disdain of those who follow blindly to popular political causes remains intact. (Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide)

A famous Polish journalist presents a problem for the powers-that-be when he displays his full political skill and knowledge on a television show featuring questions and answers on a world conference by a panel of journalists. (imdb)

A documentary about the sculptor Xawery Dunikowski, shot in his workshop.

Married man Wlodek meets a young psychology student Irena. She encourages him to change his life and become a translator or even a writer. However, Wlodek is trapped by his wife's ambitions and lack of courage.

Set in the time of Napoleon wars, shows how the wars swept over the unfortunate Polish country at the beginning of the XIX-th century. Story revolves around the Polish legion under command of General Dabrowski, who then fought on Napoleon's side with the hopes of Poland's revival. (imdb)

Tadeusz Kantor's theatre piece "The Dead Class" is to be considered a fundamental work of 20iest century theatre history. Childhood memories, remembrance and the omnipresent sentiment of death are the material for this "dramatic seance" (as Kantor himself called it) that is located in the corner of a dark and indefinite space at the light of a simple bulb. Wajda's 1977 adaptation for TV, is one of the director's most obscure works, but definitely worthwhile.

The film is based on the 1967 novel The Master and Margarita by the Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov, although it focuses on the parts of the novel set in biblical Jerusalem, however events which have occurred in it, are transferred to the present time. So, Levi Matvei is the modern TV reporter who makes reports from Golgotha; Yeshua Ha-Nozri passes Way of the Cross on streets of Frankfurt am Main. (en.wikipedia.org)

In 1212, a Children's Crusade is launched after Jakob (John Fordyce) claims to have had a vision in which it is said that the innocence of children would be able to liberate Jerusalem. A monk (Lionel Stander), returning from Jerusalem, joins the crusade and hears the children's confessions, gradually realizing that most of them are taking part not for religious, but for more worldly reasons, like rejected love. (en.wikipedia.org)

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 1976 Polish Film Festival, this drama from director Andrzej Wajda was based on the short story The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad. The film tells the story of a young man who tries his best to helm a foundering boat bound for Singapore. Not only is the boat itself in rough shape, but many of the passengers are suffering from a highly contagious disease. A 28-year-old Tom Wilkinson of The Full Monty and In the Bedroom appears in his first onscreen role. (Matthew Tobey, Rovi)

A dark coming-of-age film, Samson follows its Jewish protagonist (Serge Merlin) from an anti-Semitic private school to a prison, then into a Jewish ghetto, and finally over the ghetto wall to the outside world. Wajda uses this journey as a means to explore expressionist cinematography and the weighty issues facing the Jewish people. (en.wikipedia.org)

Set in the summer months preceding the September 1939 outbreak of World War II in Polish part of Lithuania. A young highschool lad, Witek, is hoping to pass the entrance exams to the university. His love interest is Alina, his high-school colleague. (imdb)

Irena Lilien (Beata Fudalej), a young Jewish woman, escapes from the Warsaw ghetto where the Nazis are persecuting Jews and sending them off to extermination. She seeks out her former lover, Jan Malecki (Wojciech Malajkat). Jan and his wife Anna (Magdalena Warzecha), agree to shelter Irena from the authorities, though in so doing, they are risking their own lives. (moviefone.com)

The story of a racing car driver who undergoes so many transplants that it can no longer be determined which people have contributed to his make-up. (imdb)

The depiction of the life of Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of Poland's Solidarity movement, Lech Walesa, as events in the 1970s lead to a peaceful revolution. (imdb)

Short film on polish folk art, the pottery from small Izla town.

A posthumous homage to the great Polish cinematographer Edward Klosinski, who worked with such luminaries of Polish cinema as Krzysztof Zanussi, Krzysztof Kieslowski and the film's director Andrzej Wajda. (imdb)

The story of charismatic painter Wladyslaw Strzeminski, who opposed social realism and maintained his own artistic freedom in spite of political obstacles. (imdb)

The film shows the dramatic story of a Pole who wants to become a Volksdeutsch at all costs. Franciszek Kłos is a navy police officer in a small town, zealously executing the occupant's orders. The pursuit of Polish conspirators persecutes Jews. Growing anxiety of conscience drowns out with alcohol. Vodka ceases to be enough when one day Kłos receives a death sentence for treason, issued by an underground court ... (TVP)

This five minutes long student film by Andrzej Wajda is based on the tale of the same name by Anton Chechov. A young couple meets to go fishing in the river. Just as the lovers are about to confess their feelings to each other, they suddenly hear laughter. It is the girl's younger brother who has watched them. All summer long he threatens to tell about the secret love. He blackmails the couple with his knowledge and demands gifts for his silence.

An 11-minute documentary short about the work being done in a city throughout the night.

A free adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's classic novel "The Idiot". Here, two Japanese actors perform the key roles of a man in love with a woman who chooses the love of another man. In another sketch, the two male friends are united to discuss the issue. (imdb)