Andrzej Wajda in Honolulu
This coming Sunday, the Honolulu Museum of Art will kick off a daylong tribute to Andrzej Wajda—who died last October at the age of ninety, and whose final feature, the artist biopic Afterimage, opens theatrically next month—with a screening of the Polish master’s Kanal (1957). The middle installment in the trilogy of blistering World War II dramas that began Wajda’s career, this harrowing film was the first ever made about the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, centering on a company of resistance fighters who retreat from Nazi fire into the infernal belly of the city’s sewers. Awarded a jury prize at Cannes, Kanal earned Wajda his first taste of international recognition and solidified his position at the forefront of the Polish Film School movement. For more on the “dark radiance” of this “antiwar movie in which we see scarcely a single combat death,” read John Simon’s liner notes for our release of the film; for a broader perspective on Wajda’s legacy, dive into Michał Oleszczyk’s recent homage to the director’s remarkable career.
