Available from 26 February – 26 March.
Celebrate the centenary of Polish cinema’s grand master with this screening of his groundbreaking “men of history” diptych: two films about the decline of communism and the rise of Solidarity.

On Wajda’s death, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said: “We looked at Poland and at ourselves through him. And we understood better.” No other filmmaker was as committed to excavating his nation’s troubled modern history – something encapsulated in this double-header masterpiece. In Man of Marble (1977) – sometimes referred to as Poland’s Citizen Kane – a young filmmaker sets out to make a documentary about Mateusz Birkut, a hero of labour during the Stalinist 1950s who has since disappeared into obscurity. The Birkut legend is taken up in the Palme d’Or-winning sequel Man of Iron, completed as martial law descended on Poland and set in the Gdańsk shipyards in the early years of the Solidarity union that helped to bring down the communist regime. Together, the two films represent Wajda’s most potent reflection on the intersection of cinema and political power, capturing historical change from the ground up with electrifying immediacy.