(103 min; 1958; b/w; Polish with English subtitles)
Director: Andrzej Wajda

Recipient of the FIPRESCI Prize, Venice Film Festival 1959

A milestone of Polish cinema, this electrifying international sensation by Andrzej Wajda (the final film in his celebrated war trilogy) entwines the story of one man’s moral crisis with the fate of a nation. In a small Polish town on the final day of World War II, Maciek, a fighter in the underground anti-Communist resistance movement, has orders to assassinate an incoming commissar. But when he meets and falls for a young barmaid, he begins to question his commitment to a cause that requires him to risk his life. Ashes and Diamonds’ lustrous monochrome cinematography—wreathed in shadows, smoke, and fog—and spectacularly choreographed set pieces lend a breath taking visual dynamism to this urgent, incendiary vision of a country at a crossroads in its struggle for self-determination.