Kanal

Andrzej Wajda, born in 1926, studied first at the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts, before attending the Lodz Film School. In 1972, he directed Ensemble X to produce films by young Polish directors. The Polish romantic tradition, of which Wajda is the heir, is full of colour and movement, even to the point of excess. Wajda asserts, "I didn't begin with any preconceived ideas. The films I make are part of my life. If I tried to find the one idea that unites my work, I think it would be man's fight for and conquest of liberty. Inevitably, this liberty is repressed. And most of the time, man loses the fight." "If one takes into account the constraints imposed by an underdeveloped film industry held under government domination, Wajda's success is remarkable (...). While the public expected to see a glorification of patriotism, Wajda preferred plunging his drama into the filth and the muck of the sewers" (B. Michalek). Awarded the Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1957, this second film allowed Wajda, after A Generation in 1955, to make himself known on the international film scene.