Wajda's three remarkable films about life in Poland during World War II: A GENERATION, KANAL and ASHES AND DIAMONDS.
A GENERATION (1955) is set in Wola, a working-class section of Warsaw, in 1942 and tells the stories of two young men at odds with the Nazi occupation of Poland. The young protagonist, Stach (Tadeusz Lomnicki), is living in squalor on the outskirts of the city and carrying out wayward acts of theft and rebellion. After a friend is killed attempting to heist coal from a German supply train, he finds work as an apprentice at a workshop, where he becomes involved in an underground communist resistance cell guided first by friendly journeyman there who in turn introduces Stach to the beautiful Dorota (Urszula Modrzynska). An outsider, Jasio Krone (Tadeusz Janczar), the temperamental son of an elderly veteran, is initially reluctant to join the struggle but finally commits himself, running relief operations in the Jewish ghetto during the uprising there.
KANAL (1957) - “Watch them closely, for these are the last hours of their lives,” announces the disembodied voice of a narrator, foreshadowing the tragedy that unravels. It is September, 1944, the last days of the Warsaw Uprising, and Lieutenant Zadra (Wienczyslaw Glinski) is commanding a platoon of 43 soldiers in a desperate battle amidst the ruins of the Mokotów district. Facing a German offense and cut off from their comrades, Zadra is ordered to retreat through the sewers ('kanał' is the Polish word for sewer) to the downtown district. Reluctant to admit defeat but determined to survive, the men and women of the platoon slog through the hellish labyrinth, only to become separated. The lovers Daisy (Teresa Izewska) and Corporal Korab (Tadeusz Janczar) wade through sewage and support each other to the bitter end.
ASHES AND DIAMONDS (1958) - The last day of the war.The morning of the first day of peace. That special night and the fate of a young man caught up in the past, tired of heroism, sensing a different, better life. What a beautiful subject for a film. On that special night the past and present meet and sit down at one table. To the rhythm of tangos and foxtrots Maciek Chelmicki searches for an answer: how to live, how to rid himself of the suffocating burden of the past. He solves the eternal dilemma of the soldier: to obey or to think? But nevertheless Maciek kills...
He would rather kill a man, even against his own will, than give up his arms. He is typical of his generation: he depends only on himself and on a well concealed gun, reliable and accurate. I love these uncompromising young men and I understand them. I want my modest film to reveal to the cinema audience the complicated and difficult reality of my generation".
