The premiere of Katyn, as a bonus in the program showing the best of Wajda’s films, proves that the great Polish director is still our contemporary



Although Croatian critics already wrote about Katyn, the last film by the veteran Andrzej Wajda (born in 1926), this is a rare and important opportunity to see the film in Croatia. In most reviews Wajda’s film was a reason to talk openly about one of the atrocities of the Second World War. Namely how, in 1941, fifteen thousand captured Polish officers (among them was Wajda’s father) and civilians were slain in the Katyn woods close to Smolensk.

In 1943, the Germans blamed the USSR, which denied the incident and pointed the finger at the Nazis. In 1990, the Russians finally admitted that the massacre was done on the orders Stalin and Beria.

However, our film-lovers will find it interesting to see how much of Wajda’s directing skills, which made him into one of Europe’s most important authors, this film showcases even though it was made in the sunset of his career. Wajda showed great talent in his first few films - the trilogy: A generation (Pokolenie, 1954), Canal (Kanal, 1956) and Ashes and Diamonds (Popiól i diament, 1958) that showed in a complex and impressive way the coming of age of youth that fought the Nazis and the conflict of the two opposed antifascist ideologies after the war. Wajda used complexity of meanings, vitality of his characters and the authenticity of atmosphere not only to create exceptional works of art but to break the chains of socialist realism. The fact that he was chosen to work on the ambitious omnibus L' Amour à vingt ans (1962) demonstrates the international response to his films. Nevertheless, the 1960s were a period of stagnation for Wajda and Polish cinema. Samson (1961) was one of his more interesting films from this period, perhaps because it dealt with war in an unusual way, theme that determined Wajda as a man and as an artist. Fury Is a Woman (Sibirska ledi Magbet, 1961) based on the tale by the Russian writer Nikolaj Semjonovič Ljeskov (1831 - 1895), is a curiosity because it was his only movie filmed in Yugoslavia.

The return of Wajda to the ranks of leading European filmmakers occurred in the 1970s when he made a few films that criticized contemporary socialist society in Poland. The most prominent were Man of Marble (Człowiek z marmuru, 1977) and Man of Iron (Czlowiek z zelaza, 1981), which not only describe the rebellious sentiments of the majority of Polish people, but also directly contribute a great deal to it. Because of that and after the institution of the state of war, Wajda spent his next couple of years filming abroad, accomplishing great success with Danton (1983), his last film, which attracted many viewers to our cinemas. Therefore, even many knowledgeable film-lovers regard Wajda as a distant classic although he filmed fifteen movies after that. One of them is Korczak (1990), in which, long before Spielberg, Wajda pursued a theme similar to the one in Schindler’s list, maybe in a less spectacular, but probably in the end a more successful manner. He also made Chronicle of Amorous Accidents (Kronika wypadków milosnych, 1986), The Ring with a Crowned Eagle (Pierscionek z orlem w koronie, 1992), Holy Week (Wielki tydzien, 1995) and Pan Tadeusz (1999) represent some of his above average films. Most of them were shown on Croatian Television, but unfortunately in the late hours of the night so they did not receive the reception they should have had.

The premiere of Katyn, as a bonus in this program showing the best of Wajda’s films, proves that the great Polish director is still our contemporary and not just an important part of film heritage. (Tomislav Kurelec)