politically and socially charged topics in post-war Poland. Like the other films in his war trilogy, Kanal was “an honest and valuable attempt to portray the complexity of Polish contemporary history and politics.” The film “masterfully” dramatizes the tragic fate of the men and women of a small unit of Polish Home Army resistance fighters. Biographer Bolestaw Michalek provides the context: Michalek adds that “Wajda’s treatment of the Warsaw Rising and the retreat through the sewers had a definite and deliberate historical and social edge.” By the mid-1950s, two fundamental perceptions had become established among Poles regarding the event. One was a popular romantic image of gallant young martyrs who died defending the homeland. The second was official skepticism as to the purity of the high-command’s motives in committing men and women patriots to a doomed endeavor. Wajda, responding to these dual social outlooks, attempted to synthesis these in Kanal. Polish critic Krzysztof Teodor Toeplitz commented on the contrasting “heroic dimensions” of the characters in Kanal and the “latent skepticism” concerning the 1944 uprising: See also Cinema of Poland List of Polish language films Footnotes Sources Michalek, Boleslaw. 1973. The Cinema of Andrzej Wajda. The Tanvity Press. A. S. Barnes and Company. New York. Niemitz, Dorata and Steinberg, Stefan. 2016. Polish film and theatre director Andrzej Wajda dead at 90. World Socialist Web Site, 14 October 2016. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/10/14/wajd-o14.html Retrieved 4 July 2022. World Socialist Web Site. 2019 75 years ago: Warsaw uprising violently suppressed by Nazi occupiers. World Socialist Web Site. 30 September 2019. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/09/30/twih-s30.html Retrieved 8 July 2022. External links Kanał an essay by John Simon at the Criterion Collection Kanał on filmpolski.pl database Andrzej Wajda on Kanał 1957 films 1950s war drama films Polish war drama films 1950s Polish-language films 1950s German-language films Polish black-and-white films Films about Polish resistance during World War II Films set in Warsaw Warsaw Uprising Films directed by Andrzej Wajda 1957 drama films Polish World War II films