Man of Marble

Agnieszka (Krystyna Janda's debut) is making a diploma film about Birkut (J. Radziwiłowicz), a work leader from the 1950s. She reaches out to witnesses and archival documents. Birkut's colleagues talk about the years of enthusiastic reconstruction works as well as the rebellion of the worker in the name of the ideology he represented. She is helped by an editor from the film company, who shows her not only official chronicles, but also rejected parts. Agnieszka gathered amazing materials. However, they turned out to be so critical of the real socialist system that the TV editor took her camera, equipment and crew away from her. The girl lost momentum only for a moment and retreated to the house of her father, a railwayman. On the advice of her father, who convinced her that the protagonist is more important than the film itself, she sought out Birkut's son and decided to continue to collect the documentation. 

A classic film of the cinema of moral anxiety, which resulted in the following parts: Człowiek z żelaza about August 1980 and Człowiek z nadziei about Lech Wałęsa. The script was written by Aleksander Ścibor-Rylski, the author of reports on large construction sites in the 1950s. The sculpture of Birkut, by Roman, ‘played’ in Krzysztof Zanussi's Barwy ochronne from the same year. It is currently located on display in the hall of the Museum of Cinematography in Łódź. The film won the Journalists' Award at the Polish Film Festival in Gdańsk (1977), the FIPRESCI Award at the Cannes International Film Festival, and also the Grand Prix and the Acting Award for Jerzy Radziwiłowicz at the FEST International Film Festival in Belgrade (1979).

In addition to singular tickets we also offer a six-ticket pass for the retrospective.