Ashes and Diamonds

WED May 19 7:45 pm Konvikt / film hall / free admission

ASHES AND DIAMONDS
Popiół i diament
Poland 1958

director Andrzej Wajda
screenplay Jerzy Andrzejewski, Andrzej Wajda
story Jerzy Andrzejewski
director of photography Jerzy Wójcik
editor Halina Nawrocka
music Filip Nowak
cast Zbigniew Cybulski, Ewa Krzyżewska, Wacław Zastrzeżyński,
Adam Pawlikowski, Bogumił Kobiela, Jan Ciecierski


The plot of Wajda's adaptation of the Jerzy Andrzejewski novel is significantly condensed into one day and one night at the end of WW2. Maciej Chełmicki, a young Home Army soldier (in an unforgettable performance given by Zbigniew Cybulski who shows striking similarity to the rebellious James Dean), a member of the socalled “lost generation”, or youths growing up during the war, has a task of killing comrade Szczuka, a Communist Party member who arrives to a small town to “bless” the peace brought about by the Soviets. But chance has it that they kill innocent victims. While pondering on useless death, Maciej starts to doubt about himself and his motives, asking about the meaning of his actions Though he may at first glance seem as a laid back young man, he carries many scars in his heart. He no longer believes in God, since He has already abandoned the world ravaged by the war.


In sketching a portrait of his hero, Wajda avoided both conformism and exaggeration. He hasn't made him either into a monster or a degenerate, or even a ne'erdo-well, but simply a youth deformed by war. This is in keeping with the same honesty and attention to verisimilitude, which characterizes the presentation of the political and social climate in Poland at the moment of the allied victory. Advocates of the new and the old systems confront one another not as symbolic marionettes, but as people made of real flesh and blood, hungering for a shred of hope. Furthermore, the film is beautiful in itself: well constructed, well played, and well narrated. (…) At 32 years of age Wajda has proven that he is a thoroughbred creative artist and certainly one of the most talented creators of the European “new wave”.