From Suwałki to Cannes: In the Footsteps of Andrzej Wajda
The creative journey of Andrzej Wajda, who found inspiration in both the paintings of Andrzej Wróblewski and the stained glass windows of the Franciscan Church in Kraków, stretched from Suwałki to Cannes and from Żoliborz to Paris. We explore where traces of this remarkable director can still be found in Poland and France today.
Every artist leaves behind not only their work but also traces in space. For fans of an artist, following in their footsteps can be a practice that greatly enhances the appreciation of their work. In search of the sources of inspiration and landscapes that left their mark on Andrzej Wajda’s artistic sensibility, we will visit a small manor house, where horses are bred today, and the most distinguished European temples of cinema.
The director was born on 6 March 1926 in Suwałki. He spent his early years in an officers’ house at what is now 27 Wojska Polskiego Street in that city. The future director’s father, Jakub Wajda, was a lieutenant and later a captain in an infantry regiment in Suwałki, which explains why the family lived in a barracks building on the outskirts of the local military unit. The future director also began his school education in Suwałki. Although the Wajda family moved away from the city when Andrzej was less than 8 years old, the future creator of Man of Marble remained in contact with his hometown. In 1989, the director stood for the Senate in the Suwałki district. Having received 105,000 votes, he secured a seat and, during his first term until 1991, sat in parliament on behalf of the Solidarity Citizens’ Committee. In the same year, 1989, the director helped to restore the banner of the school he attended in the early 1930s.
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A plaque honouring Andrzej Wajda, Honorary Citizen of the City of Suwałki. The plaque is mounted on the building at 27 Wojska Polskiego Street, photo: Forum
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In 2017, Krystyna Zachwatowicz-Wajda, the wife of the director who had passed away a year earlier, unveiled a commemorative plaque in his honour. It was built into the wall of the house where Andrzej Wajda spent the first few years of his life.
Childhood in the neighbourhood of the barracks
Military families often moved due to their soldier’s assignment to a unit. In 1934, Jakub Wajda’s family relocated to Radom. They settled in a house at 20 Malczewskiego Street in Śródmieście, once again close to a military unit. Here, the future director finished primary school and, in 1939, passed the entrance exam to secondary school. ‘Radom became my home, where I spent the ten most formative years of my life,’ said the director. It was here that the Wajda family experienced much of the war: here, the artist completed secondary school, attended underground education, and sat his final exams. Radom is also linked to a family legend of the Wajdas: when the father of Andrzej and his brother Leszek went to war, the boys buried their father’s Legion sabre in the yard of their house on Malczewskiego Street. Jakub Wajda never returned – he was shot by the Soviets in Kharkiv. However, in 2011, during the ceremony of placing a commemorative plaque on the wall of the house on Malczewskiego Street, the current residents presented the director with a weapon they had found, which the filmmaker recognised as a memento of his father.
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Director Andrzej Wajda at the opening of the exhibition: ‘Andrzej Wajda – Captain Jakub Wajda Katyń. Documents and Photographs’ in a tenement house at 20 Malczewskiego Street, Radom, 2011. The exhibition featured reproductions of archival photographs from Andrzej Wajda’s family collection, photo: Piotr Polak / PAP
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As was the case with Suwałki, the director remained connected to Radom throughout his adult life. He visited the city and filmed there – many Radom locations featured in the 1979 film Dyrygent (The Conductor). In 2000, Andrzej Wajda was made an Honorary Citizen of Radom, and three years later, he proposed constructing a new exhibition pavilion in the city for the local Jacek Malczewski Museum, which lacked space to display its collection of contemporary art. The director and his wife offered to donate their art collection to the new institution. This gesture initiated the process of establishing the Mazovian Centre for Contemporary Art ‘Elektrownia’ – a new institution housed in a restored post-industrial building. The first exhibition at MCSW ‘Elektrownia’ opened on 4 March 2006, on the 80th anniversary of the director’s birth, an advocate for the museum’s construction.
Art schools – a forge of creative sensibility
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The Helena Modrzejewska Stary Theatre in Kraków, photo: Uliana Oliinyk / Getty Images
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Andrzej Wajda visited Kraków at the end of World War II, and was hiding there in his uncles’ flat. In 1944, he secretly attended an exhibition of Japanese woodcuts from Feliks ‘Manggha’ Jasieński’s collection, which was opened by the Germans at Kraków’s Sukiennice. Today, we know that this event would later lead to an important development for the Polish museum and art scene.
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Andrzej Wajda during the unveiling of a commemorative plaque on the famous stairs, Leon Schiller National Higher School of Film, Television and Theatre in Łódź, 2009, photo: Michał Tuliński / Forum
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In the autumn of 1946, Andrzej Wajda moved permanently to the capital of Lesser Poland to begin his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. This was not a coincidental choice: the artist had already studied drawing in Radom and was passionate about visiting exhibitions and theatres, where he paid particular attention to stage design. At university, he enrolled in a stage design course taught by Professor Karol Frycz and started creating his own designs. At the same time, he joined the ‘self-education team’ of the Polish Academic Youth Association – a kind of academic club at the Academy of Fine Arts – which also included Andrzej Wróblewski, Andrzej Strumiłło, Jan Tarasin, and Konrad Nałęcki, among others. Many of his acquaintances from that time influenced the future artist – one of his most notable inspirations was Andrzej Wróblewski’s painting.
Thanks to his friendship with Konrad Nałęcki, the future creator of the television series Czterej Pancerni i Pies [Four Tank-Men and a Dog], in 1948, Wajda decided to change his field of study – they both moved to the Łódź Film School to study directing. They both graduated in 1953 (Nałęcki immediately defended his diploma, while Wajda did so seven years later). After graduating from the Film School, Wajda began working on film sets, which for many years became his most important environment. The director’s first job was as Aleksander Ford’s assistant, working on the set of the 1953 film Piątka z Ulicy Barskiej (Five from Barska Street). A year later, he made his debut with his own production, the film Pokolenie (A Generation).
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Andrzej Wajda at a rehearsal of 'The Possessed' based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel, 1971, Stary Theatre in Kraków, photo: Wojciech Plewiński / Forum
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Andrzej Wajda na próbie przedstawienia "Biesy" według Fiodora Dostojewskiego, 1971, Teatr Stary w Krakowie, fot. Wojciech Plewiński / Forum
With the start of his directing career, Andrzej Wajda ceased to be tied to any specific place. He occasionally lived in Warsaw and travelled extensively, driven by successive projects. As we know, he eagerly maintained his connections with cities from his past, and the same is true of Kraków. It was here, as he himself mentioned many times, that he became familiar with the work of Stanisław Wyspiański, which proved to be one of his most important artistic inspirations (the stained glass windows of the Franciscan Church, for example, also made a great impression on the director), and it was here that he regularly attended theatres. For instance, the Stary Theatre in Kraków, where he directed many plays, including one of the first and most widely discussed, Stanisław Wyspiański’s The Wedding (which premiered in October 1963; Wajda was not only the director but also the costume and set designer). From 1973, Wajda became a full-time director at the Stary Theatre, where he directed plays by Mrożek, Shakespeare, and Dostoyevsky.
Between a manor house, a home & a museum
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Witold Lutosławski with his wife Danuta Bogusławska and Andrzej Wajda during the presentation of the model of the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology in Krakow, 1993, National Museum in Warsaw, photo: Teodor Walczak/PAP
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In 1987, Andrzej Wajda received the Kyoto Prize – an annual Japanese award recognising individuals who have made significant contributions to the world in the fields of science and technology, art, and philosophy. Beyond its prestige, the award also included a financial component: the recipient received 100 million yen (just under half a million dollars). Andrzej Wajda decided to allocate this sum to the construction of a museum in Kraków dedicated specifically to house Japanese artworks from Feliks ‘Manggha’ Jasieński’s collection, which was then part of the National Museum’s holdings. A year later, the Kyoto-Kraków Foundation was established to realise this project.
The design of the building, planned to be situated on the banks of the Vistula River opposite Wawel Hill, was created by the renowned Japanese architect Arata Isozaki (who in 2019 received the world’s most prestigious architectural award for lifetime achievement, the Pritzker Prize) in collaboration with Krzysztof Ingarden and Jacek Ewý’s JET Atelier in Kraków. In May 1993, the foundation stone was laid, and on 30 November 1994, Prince Takamado, nephew of Emperor Akihito of Japan, and Polish President Lech Wałęsa officially inaugurated the Manggha Centre for Japanese Art and Technology (today: the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology). Established on the initiative of Andrzej Wajda, the institution remains one of the most important on the museum map of Poland.
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Karolina Wajda in front of Norwid’s Manor House in Głuchy, photo: Tomasz Wierzejski / Fotonova / East News
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In 1966, together with his then-wife, actress Beata Tyszkiewicz, Wajda bought a manor house in Głuchy near Warsaw. The house is a distinctive structure. The larch manor, with its tall roof and porch supported by columns, is the most archetypal example of a Polish noble manor house. On 24 September 1821, Cyprian Kamil Norwid was born in this building, which adds to its historical significance. The director himself did not live here for long, but the building remains the property of his only daughter, Karolina. The historic manor is occasionally rented for film productions, and one of the rooms has been designated as a memorial to Cyprian Kamil Norwid.
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Andrzej Wajda’s house on Haukego-Bosaka Street in Żoliborz Oficerski, photo: Maciek Jaźwiecki / AW
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In 1971, Andrzej Wajda also bought a house in Warsaw, where he lived until the end of his life. It also holds significant historical and architectural value. The villa, situated at the junction of Hauke-Bosaka and Śmiała Streets in Warsaw’s Żoliborz district, was built in the mid-1920s according to a design by Kazimierz Tołłoczko. The building is part of a larger complex known as Żoliborz Oficerski – a residential estate constructed for senior military personnel, recreated as part of the resurgence of the Polish army. All the houses in this quarter were given historicist shapes – echoing the manor house style. In interwar Poland, these were the most popular forms used in constructing homes for the military and civil service elites. Soon after regaining independence, it was specifically the manor house style that was associated with Polishness, and emphasising this was an important element in rebuilding national identity after the partitions. In 2020, a commemorative plaque designed by Marek Moderau was unveiled in front of the house.
French triumphs, friendships & laurels
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Andrzej Wajda in Paris, 1978, photo: Daniel SIMON / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
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‘I will speak Polish because I want to say what I think, and I always think in Polish,’ said Andrzej Wajda when he received an Oscar for lifetime achievement in 2000. Poland, its landscape, culture, and history, were always most important to the director; his work stemmed from them, and their image is clearly visible in his films. The fame of this talented director had long before spread well beyond the borders of his homeland. Even as a young director, Andrzej Wajda gained international recognition, which also led him to travel and work outside Poland.
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Palace of Festivals and Congresses of Cannes, photo: Jean-Luc Farges / Getty Images
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Many places of special importance to the director are located in France. The Palais des Festivals in Cannes is undoubtedly one of them. This venue, which hosts one of the world’s most renowned film festivals, was often the site for the presentation and triumph of Wajda’s works. As early as April 1957, the film Kanał premiered there, and a few weeks later it received the jury’s special prize at the Cannes Film Festival, ex aequo with Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. Nine years later, the next edition of the festival was opened by The Ashes, directed by Wajda and based on Stefan Żeromski’s novel. Finally, on 28 May 1981, the director received the main festival award, the Palme d’Or, in Cannes for his film Man of Iron.
Andrzej Wajda on the set of the film Danton, 1981, France, photo: Films Du Losange / Entertainment Pictures / Forum
France had always been a welcoming country for the Polish director. In 1981, when martial law was declared, Wajda was working on the film Danton, based on Stanisława Przybyszewska’s play Sprawa Dantona (The Danton Case). The political situation put the project in jeopardy, and to prevent his work from being disrupted, the director decided to move the production to France (the film had already been made in collaboration with a French production company from the outset, but was originally intended to be made in Poland). In 1979, Wajda directed Witkacy’s play Oni (They) at the Theatre in Nanterre near Paris, starring Wojciech Pszoniak and Andrzej Seweryn. The director’s Polish-French connections also included his friendship with Józef Czapski and the Parisian Kultura circle, as well as visits to Maisons-Laffitte. Among the dozens of medals and honours he received during his life were the most notable French distinctions: the Legion of Honour and the Order of Arts and Letters. In 1999, the Polish director became a member of the French Academy; in this esteemed institution, he took the seat of Federico Fellini, who died in 1993.
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Andrzej Wajda State Primary School in Rudniki, photo: Forum
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Commemorative plaques embedded in the walls of houses in Suwałki and Radom are not the only public spaces in Polish cities that honour this outstanding director. Andrzej Wajda, who died in 2016, is the patron of streets (Suwałki, Wrocław) and squares (Warsaw, Kraków, Grudziądz). Back in 2009, the creator of Innocent Sorcerers became the patron of a secondary school (now a primary school) in Rudniki, on the border between the Opole and Silesian Voivodeships. The choice of patron was made by the pupils themselves. ‘I liked the persistence with which the school principal repeated his requests, even though I gave him the opportunity to find someone more suitable to become the patron. I also liked the fact that it was young people who wanted me as their patron, that it was the students who chose me in a vote,’ Andrzej Wajda told the local press after attending the ceremony to name the school after him. The director is one of the most important figures in the history of 20th-century Polish culture. It is to be expected that there will be more places where his memory will be honoured. All the more so because Wajda’s films are still watched and relevant today, and have lost none of their visual appeal.
Translated from Polish by Agnieszka Mistur
