This expertly assembled 76-minute documentary explores the life and career of Polish filmmaker Andrez Wajda. Still pictures and newsreel clips are utilized to cover Wajda's wartime experiences in the Polish Resistance. His disillusionment with postwar Poland helped shape Wajda's cinematic vision, resulting in his brilliant war trilogy
A Generation (1954),
Kanal (1957) and
Ashes and Diamonds (1958). The film dissects the relationship between the director and his great discovery, matinee idol Zbignew Cybulski, whose early death inspired the Wajda-directed tribute
Everything for Sale (1968). In 1989, even as Andrzej Wajda-A Portrait was still in post production, Wajda was just emerging from the exile imposed upon him by the Polish government as punishment for his pro-Solidarity films
Man of Marble (1977) and
Man of Iron (1981). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide