directed by Andrzej Wajda, biopic, 98 min, eng subtitles, 16+
written by Andrzej Mularczyk
with Bogus³aw Linda, Bronis³awa Zamachowska, Zofia Wich³acz
Afterimage is the last film of the acclaimed Polish filmmaker, winner of Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement and Palme d'Or, Andrzej Wajda. It is a bitter portrayal of a sombre episode in Polish history, which examines the baleful impact of the authoritarian tyranny imposed on artistic freedoms in Wajda's homeland. In 1945, as Stalin gains sway over Poland, famous painter W³adys³aw Strzemiñski refuses to compromise his art with the doctrines of social realism. Persecuted, expelled from his chair at the University, he’s eventually taken off museums’ walls. With the help of some of his students, he starts fighting against the Party and becomes the symbol of an artistic resistance to intellectual tyranny. A vivid and passionate tribute to the pioneer of constructivist avant-garde painting, set in the awful Stalinist era, Afterimage can be seen as a veiled portrait of the director's own struggle against the communist regime and more generally all the attempts to silence artists.