Man of Iron

A Polish film and a sequel. The year is 1980. There is a strike at the shipyard in Gdańsk; the workers have occupied the yard and no news goes in or out. Winkel is a radio journalist. His task is clear: prepare a broadcast to discredit one of the workers leading the strike. He is an alcoholic, unwilling, and has to do it. He starts investigating. The father of the man he is aimed at is the bricklayer from the earlier film; the son is facing the same system in another period. From there the film becomes an inquiry told through witnesses. University years, the demonstrations of the 1960s, the killings of the 1970s and the breaking up of a family are given in turn. The more Winkel listens, the more he loses his own side. What the narrative is interested in is not the event but the record: the film treats the strike as a document and folds real footage into the fiction. It was shot inside the event. The crew was at the shipyard while the strike was going on, real workers appear, and the workers' leader of the period appears as himself in one scene. Jerzy Radziwiłowicz and Krystyna Janda take the main parts, both carried over from the earlier film. Marian Opania plays Winkel. Andrzej Wajda directed. The film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and shortly afterwards martial law was declared in Poland; it could not be shown in the country for years. Who it is for: anyone interested in political cinema and recent history. Who it is not for: anyone who has not seen the first film; the narrative leans on it directly and asks that you know the political background.