Andrzej  Wajda communicate emotions of the turbulent period.

        The good Lord gave the director two eyes - one to look into the camera, the other to be alert to everything that is going on around him. Born in 1926, Wajda made more than 40 films during a career spanning 60 years, many of them inspired by the turbulent times through which he lived, including wartime-set Kanal and post war-stories Man of Marble, Man of Iron and Kaytn.

          Wajda's last movie 'Afterimage,' a biopic about avant-garde painter Wladyslaw Strzeminski, whose works were banned by the communist regime, was chosen as Poland's official entry for the 2016 Oscar for best foreign language film
Wajda's career, which maneuvered between a repressive communist government and an audience yearning for freedom, won him international recognition and an honorary Oscar.

          A prominent member of the Polish Film School (1955-1965), Wajda is arguably the most faithful representative of Polish heritage in international cinematography. Intensely prolific throughout his career, he created one acclaimed masterpiece after another in the politically restricted environment that was communist Poland before 1989.

          In 1975, Wajda’s work was already lodged deep in the hearts of the Poles; Ashes and Diamond (1958) was hailed as an uncontested piece of art, while The Promised Land (1975) was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1975, at a cinematography conference in Gdansk, Wajda voiced his frustration to the communist authorities; he argued that the regime cornered young directors into filming epic,  historical  dramas and book adaptations rather

than features with a contemporary focus.

          Man of Marble (1977) shows the makings and fall of a communist legend; indeed, legends have been told about the film’s genesis and screenings. When it was first shown publicly – and the authorities allowed it to be screened in only one cinema, in order to stifle its outreach – long, angry queues formed outside the cinema, brimming with young Poles determined to see the controversial production.

          Even after the collapse of the communist system and along with it, censorship, Wajda remained faithful to the historical epic and merged it with stories of individual weight (The Revenge, 2002, or Pan Tadeusz, 1999). One of his recent productions, Katyn (2007), stirred many critics by its brave portrayal of the Katyn massacre during the Second World War. Although the film received mixed reviews, its symbolism remains touching in the spectrum of Polish cinematography.
In 1999, Wajda received an Academy Award in honour of his lifelong achievements.

         In March this year, Wajda pledged to continue working as long as his energy allowed him.He also said that his successful movies were down to the success of entire crews, and that those which weren't that good were his own fault.

          Ewa Bianka Zubek looks at the lives and work of the three most prominent Polishdirectors, Roman Polanski, Krzysztof Kieślowski and Andrzej Wajda, each of whom created a compelling and highly individual canon of films, which would see them revered as art house auteurs across the world.