Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema Volume 1. BR 6: Człowiek z Żelaza / Man of Iron (1981)

In December 2011, filmmaker Martin Scorsese travelled to Poland to accept an honorary degree from The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School in Lodz. During his stay in Poland, he met with Jedrzej Sablinski (a digital restoration expert, now DI Factory CEO), and discussed the digital restoration in Poland achieved within the KinoRP project. In the months following this visit, with the help of The Film Foundation executive director Margaret Bodde and The Digital Film Repository CEO Maciej Molewski (now with all DOTS), the idea of a North American tour of a series of restored Polish classics came together. From an extensive catalogue, Martin Scorsese chose twenty-one masterpieces.
Premiering in New York City at the Film Society of Lincoln Center on February the 5th, 2014, the series featured films from some of Poland's most accomplished and lauded filmmakers, spanning the period from 1957-1987. Each film has been brilliantly restored and digitally remastered to 2K resolution, and brought to the standards of DCP distribution. The program was created by Martin Scorsese's non-profit organisation The Film Foundation, organised in partnership with the National Audiovisual Institute of Poland, and with the support of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland, the Polish Film Institute as well as Kadr, Tor and Zebra film studios.


Człowiek z Żelaza / Man of Iron (1981)

Director: Andrzej Wajda
Writers: Aleksander Scibor-Rylski (scenario)
Stars: Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Krystyna Janda, Marian Opania

A worker becomes a "man of iron" forged by experience, a son comes to terms with his father, a couple fall in love, a reporter searches for courage, and a nation undergoes historic change. In Warsaw in 1980, the Party sends Winkel, a weak, alcoholic TV hack, to Gdansk to dig up dirt on the shipyard strikers, particularly on Maciek Tomczyk, an articulate worker whose father was killed in the December 1970 protests. Posing as sympathetic, Winkel interviews people who know Tomczyk, including his detained wife, Agnieszka. Their narrations become flashbacks using actual news footage of 1968 and 1970 protests and of the later birth of free unions and Solidarity.

Extras:
- Trailers




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