Arena

Episode Synopsis

For 25 years the Polish film director ADRZEJ WAJDA has been making some of the most exciting and boldly critical films in Eastern Europe. He was filmed in Warsaw and Cracow shortly after he had returned from the Cannes Film Festival, where he won the Palm d'Or. How has he managed, in a long career in film and theatre, not to be silenced by censorship? How does he view his films, and his obsession with Polish history, in the urgent mood of today? From the post-war disillusion and despair of Ashes and Diamonds in 1958 to Man of Iron, which centres on the days of hope in the Cdansk shipyards last year, Wajda looks back on his career as a film-maker, and questions some of- the attitudes of his times.