Andrzej Wajda

Polish Cinema Classics - Volume II Andrzej Wajda

A collection of three classic Polish films. Set in the late 1800s, 'The Promised Land' (1975), follows the underhand methods three friends, a Polish aristocrat (Daniel Olbrychski), a Jew (Wojciech Pszoniak), and a German (Andrzej Seweryn), employ as they try to get their fledgling factory off the ground in the newly industrialised textile manufacturing centre of Lodz. Director Krzysztof Zanussi's 'Illumination' (1972), is a semi-autobiographical investigation into truth and enlightenment, as seen through the eyes of graduate physics student Franciszek Retman (Stanislaw Latallo).

As he searches for the meaning of life through his studies and his involvement with those he comes into contact with, Franciszek comes to realise that life, as such, is outwith our control. Finally, in 'Escape from 'Liberty' Cinema' (1990), a Polish provincial censor is taken aback when the actors in the film he is watching decide that they've had enough, and refuse to speak their lines. After summoning help from party officials and realising the scenario echoes Woody Allen's film 'The Purple Rose of Cairo', the situation quickly deteriorates when, whilst demonstrating the similarities, the two films are accidently superimposed on one another.