Andrzej Wajda and the "Man of Steel"

Today I found out that the Polish film director Andrzej Wajda (1926-2016) passed away. His movies made big impression on me as a child, especially "Canal" about the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.

An episode from his life seems especially instructive as a lesson for artists at a time of political turmoil and totalitarian tendencies.

Less than a year after the first big strike of Solidarity in Gdansk shipyard in 1980, Andrzej Wajda made the movie "Man of Iron" (1981). The Polish Communist authorities censored the film shortly after, as the dictatorship tightened its grip.

Posters for the "Man of Iron" in French, Serbian and Polish.

The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival. The award is preserved in the museum of "Solidarity" in Gdansk, along with the posters for the movie from around the world, including from Yugoslavia.

The PAlme d'Or awarded to Andrzej Wajda at Cannes Film Festival for Man of Iron.