Plot Summary

Ashes and Diamonds
Andrzej Wajda, 1958

On the last day of World War Two in a small town somewhere in Poland, Polish exiles of war and the occupying Soviet forces confront the beginning of a new day and a new Poland. In this incendiary environment we find Home Army soldier Maciek Chelmicki, who has been ordered to assassinate an incoming commissar. But a mistake stalls his progress and leads him to Krystyna, a beautiful barmaid who gives him a glimpse of what his life could be. Gorgeously photographed and brilliantly performed, Ashes and Diamonds masterfully interweaves the fate of a nation with that of one man, resulting in one of the most important Polish films of all time.

A Generation
Andrzej Wajda, 1955

Stach is a wayward teen living in squalor on the outskirts of Nazi-occupied Warsaw. Guided by an avuncular Communist organizer, he is introduced to the underground resistance—and to the beautiful Dorota. Soon he is engaged in dangerous efforts to fight oppression and indignity, maturing as he assumes responsibility for others’ lives. A coming-of-age story of survival and shattering loss, A Generation delivers a brutal portrait of the human cost of war.

Kanal
Andrzej Wajda, 1957

“Watch them closely, for these are the last hours of their lives,” announces a narrator, foretelling the tragedy that unfolds as a war-ravaged company of Home Army resistance fighters tries to escape the Nazi onslaught through the sewers of Warsaw. Determined to survive, the men and women slog through the hellish labyrinth, piercing the darkness with the strength of their individual spirits. Based on true events, Kanal was the first film ever made about the Warsaw Uprising and brought director Andrzej Wajda to the attention of international audiences, earning the Special Jury Prize in Cannes in 1957.

DIRECTOR - APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION THREE - DISC SET FEATURES 

• New, restored high-definition digital transfers
• Audio commentary by film scholar Annette Insd'orf on Ashes and Diamonds
• More than 90 minutes of exclusive new interviews with Andrzej Wajda and colleagues, discussing the director's career and the making of these films
• Vintage newsreel on the making of Ashes and Diamonds
• Ceramics from Ilza (Ceramika Ilzecka), Wajda's 1951 film school short
• Jan Nowak - Jezioranski: Courier from Warsaw, an interview by Wajda of a Warsaw Uprising insider
• Rare behind - the - scenes production photos, publicity stills, and posters
• A gallery of Wajda's original drawings and paintings
• New and improved English subtitle translations
• PLUS: New essays by film scholars and critics Ewa Mazierska, John Simon,and Paul Coates