Ashes and Diamonds (Polish: Popiół i diament) is a 1958 film directed by Polish film director, Andrzej Wajda, based on the novel by Polish writer Jerzy Andrzejewski. It completes Wajda's Three War Films trilogy, following A Generation and Kanal.

The title comes from a 19th Century poem by Cyprian Norwid and references the manner in which diamonds are formed from heat and pressure acting upon coal.

Synopsis

The film takes place in an unnamed small Polish town on May 8, 1945, the day Germany officially surrendered ending World War II. Maciek (Zbigniew Cybulski) and Andrzej (Adam Pawlikowski) are veteran Home Army soldiers who have been assigned to terminate communist Commissar Szczuka (Waclaw Zastrzezynski), but both their first attempt to ambush him, killing instead two civilian cement plant workers. They are given a second chance in the town's leading hotel and banquet hall, Monopol.

Meanwhile, a grand fête is being organized at the hall for a newly appointed minor minister (and current town mayor) by his assistant, Drewnowski (Bogumil Kobiela). Drewnowski is in fact a double agent, present at the first attempt to kill Szczuka. Maciek manages to sweet talk himself into a room with the desk clerk, who is also a fellow Warsaw native. They sadly reminisce about such things as the older section of town and the chestnut trees which were lost when the German's destroyed most of the city in the aftermath of the Warsaw Uprising. While Maciek and Andrzej bide their time to strike Szczuka, Maciek becomes infatuated with the hotel's barmaid, Krystyna (Ewa Krzyzewska).

Meanwhile, Szczuka is attempting to locate his long lost son, Marek. Unbeknownst to the old soldier (Szczuka served during the Spanish Civil War like many 1930s communists), Marek has been serving in the Home Army and was recently captured by the Red Army. Marek was serving under the officer Andrzej will replace.

Maciek's crush on Krystyna grows as the hour he must assassinate Szczuka nears, while Drewnowski becomes giddy at the thought at what his boss' promotion will do for his own career. Drinking with a cynical reporter until he is quite plastered, Drewnowski barges into the banquet dinner. In short order he sprays the guests with a fire extinguisher, pulls the tablecloth (and everything on it) to the floor and finds himself out of a job.

After sleeping with Krystyna, Maciek goes for a walk with her and ends up in a bombed-out church. She finds an inscription on the wall, a poem by Cyprian Norwid:

So often, are you as a blazing torch with flames

of burning rags falling about you flaming,

you know not if flames bring freedom or death.

Consuming all that you must cherish

if ashes only will be left, and want Chaos and tempest

Or will the ashes hold the glory of a starlike diamond

The Morning Star of everlasting triumph.

Maciek and Krystyna converse under an inverted crucifix in a destroyed church

Attempting to fix her broken heel, Maciek stumbles into a crypt where the bodies of the men he helped kill that morning are laid out awaiting burial. He then decides he must carry out his orders, and when Szczuka forgoes his car to walk to the detention area holding his son, Maciek takes advantage of the opportunity to shoot him. As Szczuka falls, fireworks celebrating the end of the war fill the sky.

The next morning, Maciek goes to where Andrzej awaits in a truck. From concealment he watches as Drewnowski arrives thinking he will join them, but Andrzej is aware that Drewnowski is only doing it because he has no other choice. Andrzej throws him to the ground and drives off. When Drewnowski sees Maciek, he calls out to him. Maciek flees and runs into a patrol of Red Army soldiers. He is shot and ends up dying in a trash heap.

References to the Warsaw Uprising

The main character, Maciek, has to wear a sunglass all the time, since he was in the Warsaw Uprising, which took place between August 1 and October 2 (63 days in total), and where insurgents used the Warsaw sewers to move between the Old Town and the Downtown of Warsaw. Maciek being part of the uprising explains his hatred of the Soviets, who were on the other side of the Vistula but did not help the insurgents at all. He also mentions Warsaw as a beautiful memory to the porter, obviously referring to the almost total (85%) destruction of Warsaw by the Germans following the uprising.

External links

• Ashes and Diamonds at the Internet Movie Database
• Criterion Collection essay by Paul Coates

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