The Films of Andrzej Wajda at SIFF Cinema: Oct 10 - Nov 8

Polish cinema announced a groundbreaking generation of films that came in the early 1960s and 70s, with the arrival of Andrzej Wajda's "Ashes and Diamonds". These aesthetic, political, and thematic detractors from the Soviet Era, were represented in the extensive restoration undertaking by the Polish Film Institute alongside, "Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema". Scorsese spoke with The Guardian at the time of the restoration project, "My Passion for the Humor and Panic of Polish Cinema". Polish cinema underwent a brief period of creative oppression, following the Polish political crisis of 1968, which had strong parallels with the concurrent movement of the Prague Spring and the Czech New Wave. After which, Glasnost under Gorbachev revived this preexisting predilection, describing a stark view of Soviet reality and its expression in the arts. This fall, following the Wadja 100 centennial at The New York Film Forum, organized in collaboration with DI Factory and The Polish Film Institute,  SIFF is hosting a selection of eight films from the filmmakers diverse oeuvre. The Films of Andrzej Wajda span the totality of the decades, and tumult described above, from late Soviet Era works, to films of a increasingluy more liberated time. From political and class concerns, such of those in the 19th century class and labor conflicts of "The Promised Land", to the ghosts of history converging on a rural celebration in "The Wedding", to existential unease of "Birch Wood" set in the wilderness of the early 1930s, and modern urban tales of navigating the themes of friendship, loss, identity and art, in "Everything for Sale".