A Generation

Directed by Andrzej Wajda, 1955. After witnessing Nazis slay his friend, young proletarian Stach joins a partisan resistance cell (the left-wing People’s Guard) and transforms as a person, lover and antifascist. Andrzej Wajda’s feature debut exudes energy and composure, shading 1942 Warsaw in Expressionist cinematography—courtesy of Jerzy Lipman—and a contrapuntal soundscape by the modernist composer Andrzej Markowski. Influences of Italian neorealism and urban documentary are apparent, as is Wajda’s ambition to devise a new Polish cinema on the ruins of the old and artificial. No actors with experience in prewar filmmaking were used; A Generation was the first professional project for most of the cast and crew. To appropriately imbue spaces with atmospheric dread, filming mostly took place on cloudy and rainy days, ensuring that Wajda’s first film is also among his darkest. Assistant…