Film Directors Mediagraphy - Andrej Wajda
updated (10/00)

Andrzej Wajda portret [videorecording] / Fundacja dla Uniwersytetu Jagiello´nskiego, Stowarzyszenie "Krakowska Alternatywa".  [Sarasota, Fla. : Polart Distribution (USA), Inc., 1992?].  1 videocassette (ca. 55 min.) : sd., col. and b&w ; 1/2 in.  Direct meeting between the viewer and Andrzej Wajda, the film director, the creative artist, the active politician and an extraordinary man. VHS 1936

Brzezina [videorecording] = The Birch wood / Zespól Filmowy "Tor". Birch wood.  San Jose, Calif. : Saenta International, [198?].  1 videocassette (115 min.) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in.  Film, an account of two brothers buried in the solitude of a remote forest, brings into focus one of Iwaszkiewicz's recurrent preoccupations, life overshadowed by intimations of death in which the only (most natural) way to stand up to death lies in romantic and physical love. Stanislaw is dying of tuberculosis; his brother, Boleslaw, is an unhappy widower with a little daughter. Stanislaw, in spite of his illness, remains cheerful and high-spirited, and even experiences a passionate love for Malina, a young peasant girl. Jealousy over his brother's happiness stimulates Boleslaw's lust for life and Helps him forget his painful past. He also seeks solace in the arms of Malina. Stanislaw dies and is buried next to his brother's wife. Malina marries her fiance, a gloomy woodcutter, and Boleslaw is about to leave the forester's house and move to town with his daughter VHS 1456

Czlowiek z marmuru [videorecording] = Man of marble / Film Polski, Zespóly Filmowy "X." Man of marble.  New York, N.Y. : New Yorker Video, [c1990].  1 videocassette (160 min.) : sd., col. with b&w sequences ; 1/2 in.  Film takes the form of an investigation into a man's life through recollections of several characters. A zealous young woman documentary filmmaker uncovers the explosive facts behind a once-celebrated worker's elevation to "stardom," his subsequent downfall and disgrace, and his eventual disappearance. Mateusz Birkut was a bricklayer who in the early days of the Communist revolution in Poland was hailed by the State as a national hero for his productivity feats and became as famous as any film star, only to disappear mysteriously from the record books in 1952. The story reveals the opportunism of the 1970s by examining the injustices in Stalinist Poland during the 1950s. VHS 2132

Czlowiek z zelaza [videorecording] = Man of iron / Film Polski, Zespol Filmowy "X". Man of iron.  Santa Monica, CA .  1981, c1993.  1 videocassette (140 min.) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in.  The Polish Solidarity strike takes place at the Gdansk shipyard in the summer of 1980. An alcoholic TV journalist is ordered to smear one of Solidarity's key figures, coined the "man of iron." Includes flashbacks of the 1968 and 1970 strike attempts.  VHS 2842

Danton [videorecording] / Gaumont-Film Polski.  Burbank, Calif.    c1984.  1 videocassette (ca. 150 min.) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in.  Georges Danton, the popular revolutionary leader, returns to Paris at a time when the new Republic is in disarray. Maximilien Robespierre and his allies have set up a monstrous dictatorship, beginning the infamous "Reign of Terror." Danton pleads with the people for an end to the bloodshed which violates the spirit of their revolution. VHS 61

Dyrygent [videorecording] = The Conductor / Zespowy Filmowe Zespol Filmowy "X." Conductor.  New York, NY .  1994.  1 videocassette (101 min.) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in.  In New York Jan Jasocki, a famous migr conductor, meets Marta, a visiting musician who is also the daughter of his first love. Nostalgic and homesick for Poland after 50 years abroad, he returns to conduct a local orchestra--the same orchestra he began with years ago. Conducting in Poland, however, is not what he had dreamed, and the concert becomes mired in government schemes to milk the political advantages of his return. VHS 2744

Innocent sorcerers [videorecording] = Niewinni czarodzieje / produced by the Polish Corporation for Film Production ; directed by Andrzej Wajada. Andrzej Wajda's Innocent sorcerers Niewinni czarodzieje.  Sarasota, FL .  c1994.  1 videocassette (86 min.) : sd., b&w ; 1/2 in.  The fear of emotions a young doctor and a beautiful girl feel leads them to choose a one-night stand rather than a long lasting relationship. VHS. Polanski, Roman. Skolimowski, Jerzy. Wajda, Andrzej, 1926- Polart (Firm) V368E Polart.  No call number available

Kanal [videorecording] = [Canal] / [produced by] Zespol Filmowy "KADR" ; Film Polski Film Agency. Canal They loved life.  Los Angeles, Calif. : Embassy Home Entertainment, c1987. The International collection The Wajda triology ; pt. 2.  1 videocassette (96 min.) : sd., b&w ; 1/2 in.  Second part of Wajda's "wartime trilogy" (the first was Pokolenie; the third, Popiol i diament). Set in the Warsaw uprising of 1944, a detachment of the Home Army is forced into the sewers where conflict and tension arise from the claustrophobic atmosphere below and the physical pressures of the German persecutors above. VHS 215 pt.2

Korczak [videorecording] / Studio Filmowe "Perspektwa" ; BBC ; Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen ; Erbograph Co. ; Regina Ziegler Filmproduktion ; Telmar Films.  New York .  c1993.  1 videocassette (118 min.) : sd., b&w ; 1/2 in.  Tells the true story of Janusz Korczak, a renowned physician and author who ran a home for Jewish orphans in 1930's Warsaw. Eventually he is forced to move his home to the Warsaw ghetto. Though the children will be deported to concentration camps, Korczak vows to remain with them till the end.  VHS 2543

Lotna [videorecording] / director, Andrzej Wajda.  Sarasota, Fla.   c1994.  1 videocassette (89 min.) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in.  Set in 1939, film is an allegorical war drama that pays homage to the Polish cavalry that fought a heroic but losing battle against the might and tanks of the German invaders at the start of World War II. This history is symbolized by Lotna, a white thoroughbred horse, who passes from person to person in the military until she breaks her leg and is shot. Wajda, Andrzej, 1926- Zukrowski, Wojciech. Lotna. Pawlikowski, Adam. Krzyzanowska, Helena. Loza, Mieczyslaw. Golas, Wieslaw. Polart (Firm).  VHS 4859

Panny z Wilka [videorecording] = The Maids of Wilko / produced by the Polish Corporation for Film Production, Zepoly Filmowe "X." Maids of Wilko.  Sarasota, Fla.   1980, c1979.  1 videocassette (111 min.) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in.  In the 1930s Wiktor Ruben returns to Wilko, a place where he spent the holidays when he was younger. He arrives in a somber, depressed mood hoping to rekindle his spirits by reconnecting with the "maids" he knew when growing up. As days pass, Wiktor realizes he can't overcome the emotional distance that developed during his absence. VHS 2111

Pokolenie [videorecording] = A generation / Zespol Filmowy "Kadr." Generation.  [England] : Thorn EMI Video, [1983?] The Wajda trilogy ; pt. 1 Classics of the Polish cinema.  1 videocassette (86 min.) : sd., b&w ; 1/2 in.  Wajda's first feature film and the "first" of his "underground trilogy." [Other films are: (1) Kanal and (2) Popiol i diament]. Film follows the fortunes of one boy under the German Occupation who, along with an entire generation of Polish youth, took up the fight against the Germans with whatever means were at hand. A cocky Polish youth decides to fight the Nazis after he falls for a pretty resistance leader. As he and his friends Help escapees during the Warsaw ghetto uprising, the innocence of a generation is lost under the grueling conditions of war. VHS 215 pt.1

Polowanie na muchy [videorecording] = Hunting flies. Hunting flies.  Sarasota, FL .  c1995.  1 videocassette (108 min.) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in.  A sensitive writer and translator, running from his wife and mother-in-law, encounters a modern, demanding woman. VHS 4018

Popiól i diament [videorecording] = Ashes and diamonds / [produced by] Film Polski Film Agency ; ZAF "Kadr." Ashes and diamonds.  Los Angeles, Calif. : Embassy Home Entertainment, [1986] The Wajda trilogy ; pt. 3.  1 videocassette (105 min.) : sd., b&w ; 1/2 in.  Third in the Wajda "wartime triology" after (1) Pokolenie and (2) Kanal. Portrait of a young Polish nationalist assassin who, when World War II ends, finds himself living uncertainly, moving from echoing bars to seedy hotel rooms, finding comfort in a girl and crazy jokes. Film captures all the bitterness and disillusionment felt by the Polish people during the political struggle that followed the war's end. VHS 215 pt.3

Siberian Lady Macbeth [videorecording] : fury is a woman / Altura Films International ; produced by Avala Film. Fury is a woman : Siberian Lady Macbeth Sibriska Ledi Magbet.  [Las Cruces, N.M.] .  1992, 1961.  1 videocassette (93 min.) : sd., b&w ; 1/2 in.  Shakespearean tragedy collides with film noir in a remote Russian village in this dark fable from celebrated Polish filmmaker Andrzek Wajda ... Siberian Lady Macbeth observes the cruel machinations of Katarina, a ruthless woman who will let nothing threaten her affair with a mysterious drifter. VHS 4004

Ziemia obiecana [videorecording] / Zespol Filmowy "X." Land of promise Promised land.  Sarasota, FL .  distribution USA, c1992.  1 videocassette (161 min.) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in.  Three industrialists representing different ethnic groups in Poland (a Pole, a German and a Jew), build a textile factory in Lodz at the turn of the century, but encounter problems with overworked, underpaid workers. VHS 5433