Czlowiek z zelaza (DVD) Andrzej Wajda POLSKI POLISH

Communist authorities at Gdansk city initiate a smear campaign to discredit Maciek Tomczyk (Jerzy Radziwilowicz), a prominent Solidarity movement activist. They appoint Winkel (Marian Opania), a TV journalist, to infiltrate his inner circle. Making use of his credibility as a former anti-Communist protestor, Winkel interviews friends and colleagues to unearth knowledge of Maciek's personal life. Despite never meeting face to face, Maciek provokes Winkel to look within himself, making the latter increasingly uncomfortable about his duplicitous function as an 'informer' for the state. Revisiting characters from Man of Marble, Andrzej Wajda provides a rich glimpse of life in Poland under communist regime. The film's distinctive blend of actual newsreel footage of the Solidarity movement (including an appearance by Nobel Peace prize winner Lech Walesa) with a compelling drama of a journalist's crisis of conscience makes Man of Iron (Palme d'Or recipient at the Cannes Film Festival) an indelible time capsule of a special moment in European history.