Afterimage
Legendary director Andrzej Wajda's final film is a passionate portrait of renowned avantgarde painter Wladyslaw Strzeminski, who challenged Stalinist orthodoxy. In post-war Poland, Strzeminski works as a professor at the National School of Fine Arts in Lodz. His students treat him like the "messiah of modern painting," but university authorities and the Ministry of Culture have a differing opinion. Refusing to comply with Party regulations, he is eventually expelled from the university and the artists' union. As the Communist authorities continue their efforts to ruin him, Strzeminski remains steadfast in his political and artistic convictions.
"The final film by the great Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda (1926-2016) tells the story of another major Polish artist. Wladyslaw Strzeminski, who lost both an arm and a leg in World War I, was a leading abstract artist in the 1930s and ‘40s, but when the Soviet Union installed a Communist government in Poland after the war he was hounded, denounced, and attacked for refusing to betray his principles... It’s a fitting final word from a filmmaker who also challenged Soviet culture commissars and censors throughout his own career. Recommended." - Video Librarian
Cast
- Boguslaw Linda
- Aleksandra Justa
- Bronislawa Zamachowska
- Zofia Wichlacz
Blu-ray Features
Blu Ray bonus feature includes 95-minute documentary WAJDA BY WAJDA
Commentary by Professor Emeritus Stuart Liebman, CUNY Graduate Center
Sound: Stereo 2.0 and 5.1 Surround Sound
Discs: 2
- "The film stands as an imposing monument to the memory of a great artist."
- "Built on a classical narrative structure, Afterimage really puts the emphasis on its remarkable lead actor, Boguslaw Linda, a legendary performer in Poland, who has, in the past, starred in films by the country's greatest directors."
- "Afterimage is as elegantly assembled as all of Wajda's work: beautifully lit, tastefully art-directed, and handsomely shot by Pawel Edelman, who was Oscar-nominated for his work on Polanski's The Pianist. "
- "CRITIC'S PICK. This is an angry, vivid, passionate film. Cinema is worse off now that Wajda, one of the truly towering greats of the form, is dead; there is some consolation, though, that he went out with his boots still most defiantly on."
Gallery
Awards & Recognition
Special Jury Prize
Polish Film Festival
Masters Programme
Toronto Int'l. Film Festival
Chicago Int'l. Film Festival
Rome Film Festival