Ashes and Diamonds
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“I don’t want any goodbyes or memories to leave behind when this is over”
Overview
One of finest and most famous Polish films ever made, Andrzej Wajda’s Ashes and Diamonds follows agents of the anti-Communist underground movement at the close of World War II. Tasked with assassinating the local secretary of the Polish Workers' Party, former Home Army soldier Maciek (Zbigniew Cybulski) accidentally kills the wrong person at the wrong time. Later informed of the secretary’s lodgings at the Hotel Monopol, Maciek has a second chance at completing his mission. But as time passes and the reality of his post-war future sinks in, he begins to reconsider whether this hit is worth it.
Why You Should See This Film
Winner of the FIPRESCI award at Cannes, lauded by countless critics, plus a noted favourite and inspiration to Martin Scorsese, Ashes and Diamonds is a tense, political and existential drama about the open end of war and people crushed by the turning page of history. Adapting a Communist set text by Jerzy Andrzejewski with great difficulty from the authorities, Wajda, with utterly exceptional cinematography and an unforgettable central performance, humanises the Polish Partisans who were demonised by Soviet propaganda and crafts a compelling study of a young man, who only knows war, condemned to death the moment his freedom was within reach.
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