Andrzej Wajda Retrospective at BFI / Kinoteka 2026

In the last days of the Second World War, Maciek, a Polish resistance fighter, is tasked with the assassination of a Communist official. When he meets Krystyna, he is offered a glimpse of a world beyond war and destruction, and questions...

THE MAIDS OF WILKO + Q&A

Andrzej Wajda

05 Feb, 18:00
BFI Southbank

After the death of a close friend, Wiktor returns to a place of his youth. He reencourages a group of sisters with whom he spent an idyllic summer 15 years prior, discovering the extent to which their lives have changed. Wajda’s most...

INNOCENT SORCERERS + THE BAD BOY

Andrzej Wajda

05 Feb, 20:40
BFI Southbank

Following his lauded war trilogy, Wajda turned his camera on Poland’s socially modern but politically disengaged post-war generation. When hipster doctor Bazyli meets out-of-towner Pelagia in a nightclub, they spend a night in his flat...

EVERYTHING FOR SALE + WARSAW (LOVE AT TWENTY)

Andrzej Wajda

06 Feb, 18:15
BFI Southbank

When a leading actor disappears from a film set, his family and crew search for him before tragic news reaches them. Wajda’s homage to his beloved actor Zbigniew Cybulski, the star of Ashes and Diamonds (p27), is also a scathing portrait...

THE ASHES + INTRO

Andrzej Wajda

07 Feb, 14:10
BFI Southbank

This epic tale of the Napoleonic wars and Poles’ participation in them provides Wajda with an opportunity to consider thorny questions around heroism and patriotism. A young nobleman partakes in the conflict, fighting for Poland’s...

HUNTING FLIES + ROLY POLY

Andrzej Wajda

07 Feb, 20:15
BFI Southbank

An outlier in Wajda’s body of work, this comedy feature focuses on bookshop worker Włodek’s encounter with the strong and independent Irena, whose ambitions to turn him into a successful writer go wildly awry. A fascinating attempt by...

THE WEDDING + INTRO

Andrzej Wajda

08 Feb, 15:10
BFI Southbank

Stanisław Wyspiański’s influential 1901 play details a marriage ceremony between a poet and peasant. The wedding party is attended by a cross-section of society. However, the veneer of harmony is broken when ghosts – drawn from local...

AN INTRODUCTION TO ANDRZEJ WAJDA

11 Feb, 18:20
BFI Southbank

Join our invited guests for an exploration of Andrzej Wajda’s work, taking a closer look at the thematic preoccupations emerging from his filmography and the context for his cinema. Considering his best-known titles and spotlighting...

A GENERATION + WHILE YOUR ARE SLEEPING

Andrzej Wajda

15 Feb, 12:10
BFI Southbank

Set in 1942, on the outskirts of Nazi-occupied Warsaw, Wajda’s striking feature debut centres on Stach, and a group of young, anti-German underground fighters, as they prepare for a new mission. The film not only established Wajda as a...

THE WAR TRILOGY: KANAL + INTRO

Andrzej Wajda

15 Feb, 15:20
BFI Southbank

A unit of Polish freedom fighters goes underground to escape German troops, in the final stages of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Wajda’s claustrophobic, nightmarish masterpiece employs haunting images to convey their struggle as they journey...

THE SOLIDARITY TRILOGY: MAN OF MARBLE

Andrzej Wajda

16 Feb, 17:50
BFI Southbank

In the 1970s, young filmmaker Agnieszka investigates the life of a 1950s bricklayer and worker’s hero. When she learns that the facts behind his story were suppressed, she has to decide whether to pursue the truth or not. Man of Marble...

ROUGH TREATMENT + INTRO

Andrzej Wajda

17 Feb, 20:30
BFI Southbank

The professional and personal lives of a respected journalist unravel unexpectedly, forcing him to reflect on his life to date. But will he be able to turn his life around? Co-written with Agnieszka Holland, Wajda’s drama is an affecting...

THE SOLIDARITY TRILOGY: MAN OF IRON

Andrzej Wajda

22 Feb, 12:00
BFI Southbank

The Palme d’Or-winning follow-up to Man of Marble sees Winkel, a Communist-friendly radio journalist, charged with finding compromising information about a Solidarity opposition leader. But in witnessing protesting workers’ fight against...

THE PROMISED LAND + Q&A

Andrzej Wajda

22 Feb, 17:45
BFI Southbank

During the Industrial Revolution, three friends decide to open a textile factory to make their fortune. But friendships, personal relationships and moral values are soon tested. An adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning author Stanisław...

THE CONDUCTOR + INTRO

Andrzej Wajda

26 Feb, 20:55
BFI Southbank

An internationally renowned conductor of Polish decent (played with gusto by Gielgud) returns to his family’s homeland to conduct a provincial orchestra after meeting the orchestra’s violist – the daughter of an old love. Beloved by...

WAŁĘSA: MAN OF HOPE

Andrzej Wajda

01 Mar, 18:20
BFI Southbank

The third film in the director’s Solidarity Trilogy, Wajda’s portrait of Lech Wałęsa, leader of Poland’s Solidarity movement, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and one of the country’s most significant political figures, is a rousing...

KORCZAK + Q&A WITH AGNIESZKA HOLLAND

Andrzej Wajda

02 Mar, 19:10
BFI Southbank

An account of the last years of Janusz Korczak, the heroic Polish Jewish educator and paediatrician, saw Wajda collaborate on the screenplay with Agnieszka Holland. The topic of Jewishness within Polish history and society is a feature...

KATYN + INTRO

Andrzej Wajda

05 Mar, 20:30
BFI Southbank

Wajda focuses on personal stories and a wider human tragedy in this Oscar-nominated film, set against one of the most painful and politically sensitive topics in Polish history: the 1940 massacre of thousands of Polish soldiers and...

AFTERIMAGE + TOWARDS THE SUN

Andrzej Wajda

12 Mar, 18:20
BFI Southbank

In his final film, Wajda returns to previously explored themes of personal and artistic resistance to an authoritarian state and ideology. Based on the life of avant-garde painter and theorist Władysław Strzemiński, the film chronicles...

strands

OPENING NIGHT GALA - ASHES AND DIAMONDS + EXTENDED INTRO

Andrzej Wajda

THE MAIDS OF WILKO + Q&A

Andrzej Wajda

INNOCENT SORCERERS + THE BAD BOY

Andrzej Wajda

EVERYTHING FOR SALE + WARSAW (LOVE AT TWENTY)

Andrzej Wajda

THE ASHES + INTRO

Andrzej Wajda

HUNTING FLIES + ROLY POLY

Andrzej Wajda

THE WEDDING + INTRO

Andrzej Wajda

AN INTRODUCTION TO ANDRZEJ WAJDA

A GENERATION + WHILE YOUR ARE SLEEPING

Andrzej Wajda

THE WAR TRILOGY: KANAL + INTRO

Andrzej Wajda

THE SOLIDARITY TRILOGY: MAN OF MARBLE

Andrzej Wajda

ROUGH TREATMENT + INTRO

Andrzej Wajda

THE SOLIDARITY TRILOGY: MAN OF IRON

Andrzej Wajda

THE PROMISED LAND + Q&A

Andrzej Wajda

THE CONDUCTOR + INTRO

Andrzej Wajda

WAŁĘSA: MAN OF HOPE

Andrzej Wajda

KORCZAK + Q&A WITH AGNIESZKA HOLLAND

Andrzej Wajda

KATYN + INTRO

Andrzej Wajda

AFTERIMAGE + TOWARDS THE SUN

Andrzej Wajda