Andrzej Wajda, 1926-2016

The death has been announced of the veteran Polish director Andrzej Wajda, who died on Sunday at the age of 90.

Wajda came to prominence in the 1950s and had to hoe a difficult road, trying to maintain artistic freedom under a Communist regime that obviously had other ideas. (I know about the thaw in the Khrushchev era of the Soviet Union, but I don't know quite as much about how it affected the rest of the states in eastern Europe. East Germany and Hungary had revolts that were brutally put down; Poland had a revolt that was apparently softer.) Wajda remained in Poland working there, with his international prestige apparently leading to a modicum of protection.

Wajda was able to work after the collapse of Communism in 1989, and indeed worked right up until the end of his life, with his final film being shown at the recent Gdynia Film Festival.

I don't know if TCM will get to run anything in the Imports slot in his memory.