Kinoteka

Andrzej Wajda’s life was described by him as ‘happy pastoral country life’ before the Second World War. His father, Jakub Wajda was captain in the Polish infantry, had been taken to Russian captive and fallen victim to Katyn massacre. His mother, named Aniela Wajda, was a teacher at a Ukrainian school.

Young Wajda survived the Second World War in Nazi-occupied Poland with his mother and his brothers. After the war Wajda went to the Academy of Fine Arts where he studied painting, particularly the impressionist and post-impressionist painting. From 1950-1954, Wajda started film directing studying at High Film School in Lodz under directors such as Jerzy Toeplitz and Aleksander Ford. According to his memories the most influential and eye-opening experience came from seeing the French avant-garde films, like “Ballet mecanique” by artist-director Fernand Leger. Wajda made his debut as director in 1955 of a full-length “Pokolenie” (1955); about a generation of the youth coming out of age during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Two other movies; award-winning “Kanal” (1957) and “Popiol i diament” (1958) completed the trilogy about life in Poland during the Second World War. The complex and politically difficult situation in Soviet-dominated Poland during this time put artists under the pressure of governing authority. However, Wajda positioned himself as an artist that was above the tension as he still managed to present the unprofessed civil war between the Polish communists and the partisans folk heroes of the Home Army, the two anti-Nazi Polish forces, divided by political ideology. In 1975 he was nominated to Oscar award for “Ziemia Obiecana” (1975); film which presented multi-layered allegory and Symbolism. It was a depiction of the 19th century capitalism in Poland; in reality an allusion to the contemporary Communist politics. Wajda’s next movie “Czlowiek z marmuru” (1977) was unmasking false impressions that the official propaganda was using to brainwash the public. In “Czlowiek z zelaza” (1981) the same main character continued the process of unmasking the Communist regime’s manipulations against the “Solidarity” labour movement of Lech Walesa.

Andrzej Wajda was elected Senator of the republic of Poland (1989-1991). From 1992-1994 he was Member of Presidential Council for Culture. In 1994 he founded the Centre of Japanese Art and Technology in Krakow, and was awarded the Order of Rising Sun in Japan (1995). Wajda was President of Polish Film Association (1978-1983). He also was Member of “Solidarity” Lech Walesa Council (1981-1989). In 2000 he won an honorary Oscar for his contribution to cinema, and an honorary Golden Bear in 2006 at the Berlin Film Festival.