Ashes and diamonds = Popiol i diament

Set on the first day of peace at the end of World War II, this film is a bitter portrait of the ‘lost generation’ of young men who served in the underground resistance (Armii Krajowej) and who cannot reconcile themselves to the post-war communist reality. Maciek (Zbigniew Cybuslki), a young Resistance fighter, is ordered to kill Szczuka (Waclaw Zastrzezynski), 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 orders. Wajda’s genius is immediately evident from the film’s opening ambush sequence, where Maciek and his compatriot mistake as their target one of two men returning from a labour camp and defines the moral and metaphysical dilemma confronting the Poles as they embrace the struggle to shape their nation’s future. A film of great power, ‘Ashes and diamonds’ is the last of the separate and self-contained stories that make up his war trilogy, preceded in 1954 by ‘A Generation’ and in 1957 by ‘Kanal’. Adapted for the screen by Jerzy Andrzejewski form his novel. In Polish with English sub-titles. Wide Screen Format (letterboxed).