As the Solidarity protests swelled in 1980, Wajda grabbed camera and crew, pulled ready-made characters off the shelf (from his earlier Man of Marble) and filmed this story of government backed espionage against the real backdrop of world-changing history unfolding: even activist and future President Lech Wałęsa (himself later the subject of Wajda’s Wałęsa: Man of Hope) has a cameo. It won both the Palme d’Or and a domestic ban when martial law was declared.
Man of Iron
Directed by Andrzej Wajda