October's World Cinema Series Is...

WORLD CINEMA SERIES
A Programme of the National Museum Cinémathèque
Co-presented with the Singapore Film Society

Date: Tue 14 Oct 2008
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: Gallery Theatre, Basement, National Museum of Singapore, 93 Stamford Road, Singapore 178897

S$8 for public/ S$6.40 concession price for students, seniors aged 60 and above NSF, and National Museum Members and Volunteers / Free admission for Singapore Film Society members

Enquiries: 6332 3659 / 6332 5642
Website: www.nationalmuseum.sg
Nearest MRT Station: Dhoby Ghaut

Ashes and Diamonds / Popiól i diament
Dir: Andrzej Wajda
1958/ Poland/ 103 min/ 35mm / Rating to be advised

In Polish with English subtitles

Regarded as the greatest in Andrzej Wajda’s wartime trilogy, Ashes and Diamonds (the final piece concluding A Generation and Kanal) remains as one of Eastern European cinema’s finest achievements.

Based on the novel by Polish writer Jerzy Andrzejewskim, the film takes place in a small Polish town on 8 May 1945, the day Germany officially surrendered and ended World War II. Maciek (Zbigniew Cybulski) and Andrzej (Adam Pawlikowski) are two young Polish Nationalist Army soldiers who have been assigned to assassinate communist Commissar Szczuka (Waclaw Zastrzezynski). Their mission fails – killing instead, two civilian cement plant workers. They are given a second chance in the town's leading hotel where Maciek meets and falls in love with Krystyna, a beautiful barmaid who gives him a glimpse of what his life could be.

Gorgeously photographed by Jerzy Wojcik and brilliantly performed (particularly Zbigniew Cybulski, in a star making performance), Ashes and Diamonds masterfully interweaves the fate of a nation with that of one man, resulting in one of
the most important Polish films of all time.