Drama
Director: Andrzej Wajda
Poland
2016
Polish with English subtitles
98 min
Colour
DCP
Rating: M Content may disturb.

Andrzej Wajda’s final film, AFTERIMAGE is a multilayered work on the role of art and freedom of expression; an intimate portrayal about Polish artist Wladyslaw Strzeminski, a pioneer of the avant-garde spanning the 1920’s and 30’s. Struggling with physical impairments, Strzeminski defies the communist regime’s efforts to make him conform to the orthodox style of Socialist Realism and suffers the dramatic consequences of his choices. AFTERIMAGE portrays how the communist regime destroyed this charismatic and defiant man.  Wajda, like no one, tells a universal story, capturing the artistic qualities of the everyday world and intriguing the viewer.

Screened in the Masters section of the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, it is the final film by Andrzej Wajda, who died in October 2016.

Awards
Special Jury Prize, Polish Film Festival 2016
EFA Feature Film Selection 2017

Principal Cast:
Bogusław Linda
Bronisława Zamachowska
Zofia Wichlacz

Producer
Michał Kwieciński

Screenplay
Andrzej Mularczyk

Cinematographer
Paweł Edelman

Editor
Grazyna Gradon

Production Designer
Marek Warszewski

Sound
Maria Chilarecka, Kacper Habisiak, Marcin Kasiński

Music
Andrzej Panufnik

Interior design
Inga Palacz

Costume designer
Katarzyna Lewińska

Production Company
Akson Studio, TVP - Telewizja Polska/NINA, National Audiovisual Institute/PISF, Polish Film Institute

ANDRZEJ WAJDA
MASTER OF WORLD CINEMA

BIOGRAPHY

In 2016, Polish director Andrzej Wajda celebrated his 90th birthday and 65th feature film: AFTERIMAGE. With a career spanning over 60 years, Wajda’s contribution to cinema has been recognized by the Academy Awards (Honorary Oscar in 2000), European Film Awards (Lifetime Achievement, 1990), Berlin Film Festival (Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement, 2006), and many others.

Four of his films have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film: THE PROMISED LAND (1975), THE MAIDS OF WILKO (1979), MAN OF IRON (1981), and KATYN (2007).

MAN OF IRON won the coveted Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Wajda has directed films from many genres, but he began his career with a trilogy of anti-war films: A GENERATION (1954), KANAL (1957, Cannes - Special Jury Prize) and ASHES AND DIAMONDS (1958). He has made many films set during or dealing with post World War II, including KORCZAK (1990), a story about a Jewish-Polish doctor who cares for orphan children, HOLY WEEK (1995) specifically on Jewish-Polish relations, and KATYN (2007) about the Katyn massacre, in which Wajda’s own father was murdered.

Wajda’s commitment to Poland’s Solidarity movement was manifested in Palme d’Or winner MAN OF IRON with Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa appearing as himself. The director’s involvement in this movement would prompt the Polish government to force Wajda’s production company out of business. Three decades later, Wajda made the biopic WALESA, MAN OF HOPE (European Film Awards - FIPRESCI Prize of the Year). Wajda’s other credits include 1983’s post-French Revolution epic DANTON, starring Gérard Depardieu, 1980’s THE ORCHESTRA CONDUCTOR, starring John Gielgud; 1983’s A LOVE IN GERMANY (1983) featuring Hanna Schygulla, and 1988’s THE POSSESSED (1988) based on Dostoyevsky’s novel.

Award-winning director of photography Pawel Edelman has been one of Wajda’s great collaborators. They worked together on several films, including AFTERIMAGE, Walesa MAN OF HOPE, PAN TADEUSZ (1999) SWEET RUSH (Alfred Bauer Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2009) and Wajda’s 1994 film version of Dostoyevsky’s novel THE IDIOT. Wajda was born in 1926 in Suwałki, Poland, the son of a school teacher and an army officer. Wajda’s father was murdered by the Soviets in 1940 in what came to be known as the Katyn massacre. In 1942 he joined the Polish resistance and served in the Armia Krajowa. After the war, he studied to be a painter at Kraków’s Academy of Fine Arts before entering the Łódź Film School. After his apprenticeship to director Aleksander Ford, Wajda was given the opportunity to direct his own film: A GENERATION (1955).Throughout his film career, Wajda has simultaneously worked as a director in theatre. His acclaimed productions include versions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Antigone and a unique interpretation of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment.

FILMOGRAPHY

Films:
– Pokolenie (Generation) 1954 (Polish State Prize);
– Idę do Słońca (I`m Going to the Sun) 1955;
– Kanał (Canal) 1957 (Jury Special Award – Silver Palm, Cannes IFF 1957);
– Popiół i diament (Ashes and Diamonds) 1957 (FIPRESCI Prize Venice IFF 1959, D. O. Selznick`s Silver Laurel Award 1962);
– Lotna 1959;
– Niewinni czarodzieje (Innocent Sorcerers) 1960;
– Samson 1961;
– Sibirska Ledi Makbet (Siberian Lady Macbeth) 1962;
– L`amour a Vingt Ans (Love at Twenty) 1962;
– Popioły (Ashes) 1965;
– Gates to Paradise 1968;
– Wszystko na sprzedaż (Everything for Sale) 1969;
– Polowanie na muchy (Hunting Flies) 1969;
– Krajobraz po bitwie (Landscape After the Battle) 1970 (Golden Globe Milan 1971);
– Brzezina (The Birch Wood) 1970 (FIPRESCI Milan IFF 1970, Golden Medal Moscow IFF
1971);
– Wesele (The Wedding) 1973 (Silver Shell San Sebastian IFF 1973);
– Ziemia obiecana (The Promised Land) 1975 (Gdańsk FF Golden Lions 1975, Golden Medal
Moscow IFF 1975, Oscar® Award Nomination 1976);
– Człowiek z marmuru (Man of Marble) 1977 (FIPRESCI Prize, Cannes IFF 1978,
Jury Special Prize, Cartagena IFF 1980);
– Bez znieczulenia (Without Anesthesia) 1978 (OCIC Prize, Cannes IFF 1979);
– Panny z Wilka (The Maids of Wilko) 1979 (Oscar® Award Nomination 1980);
– Dyrygent (The Conductor) 1980;
– Człowiek z żelaza (Man of Iron) 1981 (Palme d`Or - Golden Palm Cannes IFF 1981,
Oscar® Award Nomination 1982);
– Danton 1982 (Prix Luis Delluc 1982);
– Eine Liebe in Deutchland (A Love in Germany) 1983;
– Kronika wypadków miłosnych (Chronicle of Love Affairs) 1986;
– Les Possedes (The Possessed) 1987;
– Korczak 1990;
– Pierścionek z orłem w koronie (The Crowned-Eagle Ring ) 1992;
– Nastasya 1994;
– Wielki Tydzień (The Holy Week) 1995 (Silver Bear, Berlin IFF 1996);
– Panna Nikt (Miss Nobody) 1996;
– Pan Tadeusz (Mr Tadeusz) 1999;
– Zemsta (The Revenge) 2002;
– Katyń (Katyn) (2007), (Eagle Prize - Polish Film Academy Award, Best Film 2007; Oscar®
Award Nomination 2008, European Film Academy Prix d’Excellence 2008);
– Tatarak (Sweet Rush) (2009), (Alfred Bauer Prize for the Innovativeness –
Berlin IFF 2009, European Film Academy Prix FIPRESCI 2009);
– Wałęsa. Człowiek z nadziei. (Walesa. Man of Hope) (2013) – Pirandello Prize Venice IFF
2013.

Prizes:
– State First Class Prize 1974;
– Order of the Banner of Labor (second class) 1975;
– Konrad Swinarski Prize 1976;
– Premio David di Donatello Luchino Visconti, Italy 1978;
– Officer’s Cross of Order of Polonia Restituta;
– Order of Kirill and Methodus (first class), Bulgaria 1978;
– BAFTA Fellowship 1982;
– Onassis Prize, Greece 1982;
– Oficier, Legion d`honneur 1982 France;
– Cesar Award, France 1983;
– Pirandello Artistic Award, Italy 1986;
– Kyoto Prize, Japan 1987;
– Felix European Film Award – Lifetime Achievement Award 1990;
– Order of Rising Sun, Japan 1995; Premium Imperiale, Japan 1997;
– Golden Lion Life Achievement Award, Venice IFF, 1998;
– OSCAR® American Film Academy - Lifetime Achievement Award 2000;
– Commandeur, Legion d`honneur France 2001;
– Golden Bear Life Achievement Award, IFF Berlin 2006;
– European Film Award Prix FIPRESCI 2009.
 
TV:
Przekładaniec (Roly-Poly) 1968; Makbeth 1969; Pilatus und Andere (from Bulhakow’s Master and Margarita) 1971 German TV ZDF (Bambi Award 1972); Noc listopadowa (November Night) 1975; Z biegiem lat z biegiem dni (Gone with the Years, Gone with the Days) 1978-79; Zbrodnia i kara (Crime and Punishment) 1985; Wieczernik (The Last Supper) 1985; Hamlet IV
1989; Silniejsza (The Stronger One) 1990; Mishima 1995; Bigda 1999; Wyrok na Franciszka Kłosa (The Condemnation of Franciszek Klos) 2000, Jan Nowak Jeziorański 60 lat później (Jan Nowak Jeziorański 60 years later) 2004; Plays: Hatful of Rain 1959; Hamlet 1960, 1980, 1989; Two on the Seesaw 1960, 1990; Demons 1963; Wesele (The Wedding) 1962, 1991, (1992 Salzburg Festival); Play Strindberg 1970; Biesy (The Possessed) 1971, (1974 Yale Repertory); Sticks and Bones 1972 (Moscow); Noc listopadowa (November Night) 1974; Sprawa Dantona (The Danton Case) 1975, (1978 Sofia), 1980, (1982 Trieste); Kiedy rozum śpi (When Reason is Asleep) 1976; Emigranci (Émigrés) 1976; Nastasya Filipowna (improvisation based on Dostoyewsky`s Idiot) 1977; Rozmowy z katem (Conversation with the Executioner) 1997; White Marriage 1977 Yale Repertory; Z biegiem lat z biegiem dni..(Gone with the Years, Gone with the Days) 1978; Antygone 1984; Zbrodnia i kara (Crime and Punishment) 1984, (1986 Schaubuh-ne, Berlin); Wieczernik (The Last Supper) 1985; Zemsta (Revenge) 1986; Panna Julia (Miss Julie) 1988; Dybuk / The Dybbuk 1988, (Tel Aviv 1988); Lekcja polskiego (Lesson of Polish Language) 1988; Nastasya (based on Dostoyewsky’s Idiot) Tokyo 1989; Romeo and Juliet 1990; The Ghost So-nata 1994, Stokholm; Mishima 1994; Klątwa (The Curse) 1997; Słomkowy kapelusz (The Straw Hut) 1998; Macbeth 2004, Moscow