FILMS of ANDRZEJ WAJDA | at AFS Cinema Oct 4 - 30 скачать в хорошем качестве

FILMS of ANDRZEJ WAJDA | at AFS Cinema Oct 4 - 30

We are honored to partner with the Austin Polish Film Festival to present a selection of films by one of Poland’s greatest filmmakers, the incomparable Andrzej Wajda, who chronicled in his films some of the most turbulent periods in world history, from the nation that had the closest vantage point to many of them. The Wajda series is part of the 100-year Anniversary Celebration of Polish Independence, supported by the Polish Filmmakers Association and Austin Polish Society. Tickets: austinfilm.org/series/wajda THE PROMISED LAND | Oct. 4 Tickets: austinfilm.org/screening/the-promised-land Set in the midst of the Industrial Revolution in 19th Century Lodz, Poland, THE PROMISED LAND is a vibrant anti-capitalist epic, and one of Wajda’s great masterpieces. Three friends of different backgrounds (Wajda deliberately celebrates Poland’s multicultural past with his choice of main characters) determine that they can pool their resources to start a textile factory. They enter a modern landscape of money and machines, and run-ins with powerful and ruthlessly competitive industrial barons. Wajda adopts a pulsing energy in his visual approach to the film, adapting to the pace of the time. The factory floors are frenetic and dangerous, with conditions ever worsening for workers. Wajda’s film is a moral tale about capitalism bringing out the worst in mankind, but was also an allegory for the contemporary Communist politics of his time. The film earned Wajda his first Academy Award nomination for best foreign film. MAN OF MARBLE | Oct. 11 Tickets: austinfilm.org/screening/man-of-marble Wajda made two loosely connected films that would articulate contemporary Poland’s relationship with it’s recent political past. In the first, MAN OF MARBLE, a filmmaker attempts to discover the truth of the story of a discredited socialist hero whose image is enshrined in marble statues that are now hidden away from public view. As the filmmaker gets closer to the truth about the famous bricklayer, the complexities of the rise of communism in Poland are brought to light, and history’s effect on the current social struggle becomes radically apparent. MAN OF MARBLE balances satirical humor with Wajda’s poetic storytelling, and its own place in history is utterly unique. The 1970s brought a period of frequent strife between Polish workers organizing and party leaders, and the film’s release coincided with the strengthening of worker defense in Poland. MAN OF IRON | Oct. 18 Tickets: austinfilm.org/screening/man-of-iron Wajda’s sense of how political struggle is felt at a human, personal level is at the heart of MAN OF IRON, the director’s second film about Poland’s contemporary worker movements, which earned him both the Cannes Palme D’Or and an Academy Award nomination. The film was even more remarkably timely than MAN OF MARBLE, and was banned in Poland due its harsh critique of the communist government. A newspaper journalist attempts to cover a shipyard workers’ strike for paper that has the government’s interests in mind, and is ultimately seeking to discredit the strikers. When the reporter meets one of the behind the scenes organizers of the strikes, it turns out to be Tomczyk, the son of the famous Stalin-era worker hero from MAN OF MARBLE. In meeting with Tomczyk, the past and present of the workers struggle are brought to light, including the then-current movement for Solidarity—workers’ rights to organize. Flashbacks include footage from then-recent strikes in Poland, and the real-life socialist leader Lech Walesa is featured both in the film’s newsreels as well as in its fictional scenes. The movie’s release happened just after the formation of Polish Solidarity in 1980, and it’s subsequent suppression by the government in 1981, making it a remarkably up-to-date document of current events in Poland for those outside the country. Today’s viewers will find that the immediacy of the political moment is still perfectly captured in this exceptionally layered and powerful film. ASHES & DIAMONDS | Oct. 25-30 Tickets: austinfilm.org/screening/ashes-diamonds A classic of post-war Polish cinema and the film that made Wajda known internationally. At the end of World War II, two Polish factions that have both been battling the Nazis begin a struggle for power. ASHES AND DIAMONDS takes place on the last day of the war, when soldiers who have fought alongside each other begin to turn and take sides. At the center of the story is a young soldier who is under orders to assassinate a high ranking communist official, and who finds himself in a battle with his own conscience. Striking both visually and narratively, the film is a poetic masterpiece that is a revelation still today. Wajda’s own deep losses and personal experiences of resistance in the war permeate the narrative, making this a war film that is heartbreaking because it feels deeply personal.