Andrzej Wajda (born March 6, 1926,Suwałki, Poland—died October 9, 2016, Warsaw) was a Polish director and screenwriter who was a leading figure in the “Polish film school,” a group of highly talented individuals whose works brought international recognition to their country’s post-World War II reality.

Wajda became interested in the visual arts when working as assistant to a restorer of old church paintings inRadom,Poland. He studiedpainting at the Academy of Fine Arts inKraków (1946–49; now Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts) and thenfilmdirecting at theŁódź Film School (1949–53). His debut feature,Pokolenie (1955;A Generation), together withKanał (1957; “Canal”) andPopiół i diament (1958;Ashes and Diamonds),constituted a popular trilogy that is considered to have launched the Polish film school. The movies deal in symbolic imagery with sweeping social and political changes in Poland during theWorld War II-era German occupation, theWarsaw Uprising of 1944, and the immediate postwar years. They won Wajda significant attention, including prizes at international film festivals, andPopiół i diament, which was based on aJerzy Andrzejewski novel, became especially renowned. Its lead actor,Zbigniew Cybulski, became famous for his portrayal of a young man whose idealism survives the humiliation and defeat of the occupation and the deaths of friends and the woman he loves.

With such films asPopioły (1965;The Ashes),Brzezina (1970;The Birch Wood),Wesele (1973;The Wedding),Ziemia obiecana (1975;The Promised Land),Panny z Wilka (1979;The Young Girls of Wilko), andDanton (1983), Wajda established himself as a skilled director of filmadaptations of literature that present conflictsinherent in the human situation and that also examine Polish nationalmyths. He engaged with contemporary issues in films such asWszystko na sprzedaż (1969;Everything for Sale),Człowiek z marmuru (1977;Man of Marble),Bez znieczulenia (1978;Without Anesthetic, orRough Treatment), andCzłowiek z żelaza (1981;Man of Iron). The latter, which was regarded as amanifesto against the rulingcommunist party in Poland and in support of theSolidarity opposition movement, won theCannes film festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or.

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The highly acclaimedKorczak (1990) is a true story of the final days of Henryk Goldszmit (better known by his pen nameJanusz Korczak), a Jewish doctor, writer, and child advocate who, in order to maintain his orphanage, refused to escape Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. Wajda’s other films includeNastasja (1994);Pan Tadeusz (1999), which is based onAdam Mickiewicz’s epic poem of the same name;Zemsta (2002;The Revenge), which starredRoman Polanski;Katyń (2007), about theKatyn Massacre in 1940 that claimed Wajda’s father’s life;Tatarak (2009;Sweet Rush), a meditation on death thatcombined elements of fact and fiction; andWałęsa. Człowiek z nadziei (2013;Wałęsa: Man of Hope), about theSolidarity leader. In 1996 Wajda received the Japan Art Association’sPraemium Imperiale prize for theatre/film, and he received an honoraryAcademy Award in 2000.