Andrzej Wajda - Popiól i diament (1958)

Maciek, a young Resistance fighter, is ordered to kill Szczuka, a Communist district leader, on the last day of World War II. Though killing has been easy for him in the past, Szczuka was a fellow soldier, and Maciek must decide whether to follow his orders.

Polonia, justo tras concluir la Segunda Guerra Mundial. La situación política y social es caótica, y el idealismo cede el paso a diversas formas de anarquía y extremismo. El protagonista es un joven que milita en un grupo ultranacionalista y recibe el encargo de asesinar a un importante comunista; pero el joven conoce el amor y en pocas horas sus certezas se pulverizan. Sin embargo, la muerte sigue siendo la única alternativa aparente.




Maciek, a young soldier in the right-wing Polish Nationalist Army, is ordered, at the conclusion of the war, to assassinate the newly arrived communist district secretary. Maciek has fought in the uprising but is now uncertain about continuing to espouse an inevitably lost cause against the left. He bungles the murder, killing two bystanders and is told to try again. He is hopelessly driven between the demands of conscience and of loyalty, and is further up-ended by falling for a girl in the hotel at which he and the communist official are staying. She makes him feel that his lifestyle is meaningless in the new, post-war climate. Though he manages to accomplish his mission on the very evening that fireworks announce the end of hostilities, he is accidentally shot when running from a military patrol. He dies alone on a rubbish dump in a scene reminiscent of Buñuel's Los Olvidados.




Based on Jerzy Andrzejewski’s novel and screenplay, director Wajda uses striking imagery to convey vivid ideas that carry cynicism, melancholia, wistfulness and shock. Wadja’s sharply etched black-and-white action takes in a shattering sweep of the litter of a lost and ruined country at the symbolic dawn of a new day and has the pictorial snap and quality of some of the old Soviet pictures of Pudovkin and Eisenstein. Facial expressions are highlighted, bodily movements are swift and intense and the light that comes in from the outside in the shaky morning is as dense as luminous smoke.




Zbigniew Cybulski (in a star making performance) manages, through Wajda, to express a uniquely Polish sensibility - reflecting his nation's troubled history - as well as the kind of youthful frustrations that are still recognisable today. But Wajda's deeply romantic and personal vision, inspired by both Italian neo-realism and by the more baroque images of Expressionism, makes Ashes and Diamonds a gripping experience too. It is the film's ambiguities, as the film-maker tries to come to grips with the myths and legends of the era that continue to render it fascinating.




Regarded as the greatest in Andrzej Wajda’s wartime trilogy, Ashes and Diamonds (the final piece concluding A Generation and Kanal) remains one of Eastern European cinema’s finest achievements. "Will there remain among the ashes a star-like diamond, the dawn of eternal victory?" is the question from where the film’s title originates and one that Wajda doesn't attempt to answer.




Criterion Collection rip
1959 FIPRESCI [Critics's Prize] Award Winner (FIPRESCI Award) at Venice Film Festival 1960 BAFTA Nominated for Best Actor (Zbigniew Cybulski) and Director (Andrzej Wajda)

Durante los primeros minutos del film uno tiende a pensar que, con el fin de entender mejor qué ocurre y por qué ocurre, debiera conocer previamente con algo de profundidad la peculiar coyuntura política en la Polonia de la época, que la propia película da por supuesta. Sin embargo, más tarde uno también comprende que, en última instancia y como sucede también con el neorrealismo italiano, el gran valor de la obra es que trasciende la crónica histórica —de gran importancia por si misma— para desembocar en los "eternos" dilemas morales del hombre. El ejemplo, una vez más, que cuanto más local, más universal.

El estilo visual de Wajda se convierte en el mejor cómplice para su atormentado retrato. Un estilo barroco, con reminiscencias expresionistas, lleno de atmósferas asfixiantes a partir de un uso muy marcado de la profundidad de campo y con tendencia a buscar imágenes simbólicas, como caballos blancos o cruces boca abajo. A este ahogo existencial contribuye la interpretación de Zbigniew Cybulski, el llamado "James Dean del Este", cuyos gestos espasmódicos pueden recordar también al Paul Muni de "Scarface" y le convierten en prototipo del (anti)héroe trágico.

Script/Guión: Andrzej Wajda, Jerzy Andrzejewski (based on his novel)
Music/Sonido: Filip Nowak and Jan Krenz
Cinematography/Fotografía: Jerzy Wojcik
Cast/Reparto: Zbigniew Cybulski, Ewa Krzyzewska, Waclaw Zastrzezynski, Adam Pawlikowski, Bogumil Kobiela, Jan Ciecierski, Stanislaw Milski, Artur Mlodnicki, Halina Kwiatkowska, Ignacy Machowski