A GENERATION
(1955, B/W) Director: Andrzej Wajda
This pic is one of the most incisive of all Polish director Andrzej Wajda's films, despite the fact it was made in 1954 when there was more central governmental control of screen productions in Poland.

ASHES AND DIAMONDS
(1958, B/W) Director: Andrzej Wajda
The story [from the novel by Bohdan Czeszko] concerns a youth during the occupation of Poland in the last World War who comes to adulthood through love and adversity. Members of the old Polski governmental underground here are treated mainly as gangster types, with the Communists more humane and active.

Wajda's feeling for the period and heroism weld this so well it becomes a moving tale of youth in crisis. It is perfectly acted and directed, with technical credits tops.
It’s a taut thriller [from the novel by Jerzy Andrzejewski] about immediate postwar Poland with a theme of the futility of killing and violence. Its technical knowhow, fine acting and directorial prowess make this an above average drama.
It concerns two men told to kill a top communist on the last day of the war. They represent the pre-war Polski ruling forces. Film details the eventual murder and the ironic death of the murderer.

Director Andrzej Wajda is masterly in composing atmosphere and gets fine performances, especially from Zbigniew Cybulski as the erratic young killer. Sharp direction, theme and insight into a changing Poland of the period.  

KANAL
(1957, B/W) Director: Andrzej Wajda
A former resistance fighter himself, Wadja set the second part of his War Trilogy on the 56th day of the Warsaw Uprising, among a group of bedraggled but determined souls struggling to carry on the fight. When the characters are introduced and make their way into the Warsaw sewers (the source of the title), the film takes on a chiaroscuro intensity that never relents. Using the narrow, unpredictable tunnels to navigate between the Warsaw ghetto's liberated and occupied zones, the band of resisters soon splinters into small groups, which play out their internal conflicts in the ever-fading light. Struggling to find their way in the darkness, many lose the way, and some are lost for good, but the faint light never wholly fades.