Retrospective Andrzej Wajda

We are closing the program for this year with a comprehensive retrospective of one of Europe's most important filmmakers: Polish director Andrzej Wajda. His oeuvre comprises nearly 40 films to date: large-scale tableaux of historical crises stand alongside autobiographically-tinged observations of recent history; quiet, reflective chamber dramas alongside sharp, contemporary analyses. It is at such historical and social focal points that Wajda situates his protagonists, tragic heroes at odds with themselves, who frequently founder under the pressures of history, which Wajda portrays as a series of different overlapping time periods in constant flux, which his films always subject to analysis and reevaluation. His emphasis on cinematic reworkings of Polish history or contemporary life has regularly ignited debate both nationally and internationally and has played a decisive role in how Poland is seen. Many of his films were genuine "eye-openers" (W. Jansen), not least due to their artistic form and their great sensitivity for colors, images, sounds and rhythms. Films such as Wajda's ASHES AND DIAMONDS (1958), THE WEDDING (1973), MAN OF MARBLE (1976) or MAN OF STEEL (1981) to name just a few, made film history, with his early films calling whole new movements into life. They are key films of their time which have lost none of their political explosiveness and formal charisma today, a fact which makes the gaps in the reception of some of their number in Germany all the more surprising. The retrospective thus places a particular focus on presenting the "unknown" Wajda and the films of his that have only seldom been shown, were last in cinemas many years ago or which have never even been screened in Germany before, such as ROLY POLY (1968), HUNTING FLIES (1969), LANDSCAPE AFTER THE BATTLE (1970), DANTON (1982), NASTASJA (1994) or SWEET RUSH (2009).

Wajda's work as a film and theatre director will soon span six decades and shows no sign of slowing down. The unrelenting shooting schedules that go hand in hand with this industriousness have unfortunately prevented him from being able to attend the retrospective in Berlin as the guest of honor. We have, however, invited two famous Wajda actors in the form of Wojciech Pszoniak and Jerzy Radziwiłowicz, as well as a series of young directors who have made films at the Andrzej Wajda School of Film Directing. We will be expecting all of these guests throughout the month at Arsenal and at the other cinemas taking part in the retrospective (Filmmuseum Potsdam, Hackesche Höfe, Zeughauskino).