Man of Marble (1976)

Synopsis: Andrzej Wajda's controversial attack on the brutality of the Stalinism that held Poland in its thrall during the 1950s stars Krystyna Janda as Agnieszka, whose final project for film school is a documentary investigation into the fate of... Andrzej Wajda's controversial attack on the brutality of the Stalinism that held Poland in its thrall during the 1950s stars Krystyna Janda as Agnieszka, whose final project for film school is a documentary investigation into the fate of 1950s worker-hero Mateusz Birkut (Jerzy Radziwilowicz). Birkut seems to have disappeared without a trace, but Agnieszka, probing the past, discovers the Herculean bricklayer to have been an honest yet painfully naive figure who unblinkingly swallowed Soviet propaganda. Indeed, Agnieszka unearths censored agitprop footage featuring Birkut as a willing promotional tool of party bosses. Interviewing the propagandists, she learns of the actual misery of the bricklayer's life during the period of his fame and of the manner in which his existence was erased from party records once he had the audacity to try to use his renown to greater political effect. As her research brings her increasingly closer to the ugly truths of the Stalinist era, Agnieszka's anxious superior tries to shut down her film, using the excuse that she's gone over budget. The inexorable power of Wajda's indictment of the rigidity of Stalinism--and the vigor of his celebration of naturalness and authenticity--makes this arguably his best film since his classic World War II trilogy (A GENERATION, KANAL, ASHES AND DIAMONDS). [More]

Starring: Krystyna Janda, Jerzy Radziwilowicz

Starring: Krystyna Janda, Jerzy Radziwilowicz

Director: Andrzej Wajda

Director: Andrzej Wajda
Screenwriter: Aleksander Scibor-Rylski

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