Film Forum

Wałęsa. Człowiek z nadziei
Poland, 2013
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Robert Więckiewicz, Agnieszka Grochowska
Approx. 127 mins.

It felt inevitable that Wajda would make a film dramatizing the incredible life of Lech Wałęsa, who rose from being a shipyard electrician and participant in the 1970 strikes at Gdansk to the leader of the Solidarity Movement a decade later, and then the country’s president and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Walesa’s story, and the rousing film that Wajda made, is the perfect conclusion to the trilogy including MAN OF MARBLE and MAN OF IRON, which seem now to foreshadow Wałęsa’s rise. True to form, Wajda avoids cliches and gives us an unvarnished, complex portrait, brilliantly interweaving dramatic scenes with documentary footage. 

Presented with support from The Ashes and Diamonds Fund for Eastern European Film

Reviews

“With understandable triumphalism devoid of hagiography, Wajda tracks Walesa’s career from shipyard worker to Nobel Prize winner, crafting an old-fashioned (in the best sense), at times stirring biopic that masterfully integrates an exceptional range of contemporary footage.”
– Jay Weissberg, Variety

“Wajda’s storytelling is unfettered, and stars a magnificently moustached Robert Więckiewicz as the cocky, charismatic union leader and Agnieszka Grochowska as his long-suffering wife Danuta... the film is a brilliantly plotted piece of history.”
– Kate Muir, The Times of London

“A movie with terrific force and irresistible storytelling gusto. It’s an invigorating and very enjoyable film from a director who shows no signs of slowing down.”
 – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

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