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Suddenly, I became a sort of defender of these young people who knew political life better than I did because they were children of the establishment, people who participated in authority, and these children could see their parents, knew these conversations that took place at home and also how their parents suddenly lost influence. It was, therefore, an additional difficulty in managing this crew because they were all being scrutinised by the successors of the parents in the party directorate. Zespół X became a congregation of young people who understood very well what they were participating in. This was fantastic and I learned a great deal from them. I have to say that was wonderful. By lucky coincidence, we had Bolesław Michalik on the one hand who was the literary director of our team and a master of negotiation, and on the other we had Basia Ślesicka who was production director and who was a kind of mother to all of these young film directors and who somehow made them into decent people. So I realised that I couldn't continue like this, I needed to find another way out.

Nagle ja stałem się, że tak powiem, obrońcą tej... tej młodzieży, która lepiej znała życie polityczne ode mnie, dlatego że to były dzieci jednak establishmentu – ludzi, którzy brali udział we władzy i te dzieci widziały swoich rodziców, znały te rozmowy, które odbywały się w domu, no i to jak ci rodzice nagle stracili jakiekolwiek wpływy. Tak że to była dodatkowa trudność prowadzenia tego Zespołu, dlatego że oni byli wszyscy przez lupę oglądani przez właśnie nastepców, że tak powiem, rodziców we władzach partyjnych i tu Zespół X stał się po prostu, no, jakby takim zbiorowiskiem młodzieży, która bardzo dobrze rozumiała, w czym bierze udział. To było fantastyczne, ja się szalenie dużo od nich nauczyłem. Muszę powiedzieć, że to było wspaniałe, no oczywiście to był też szczęśliwy zbieg okoliczności, że mieliśmy z jednej strony Bolesława Michałka, który był kierownikiem literackim naszego Zespołu i który był mistrzem negocjacji, a z drugiej strony mieliśmy Basię Ślesicką, która była szefem produkcji i która, że tak powiem, stała się matką tych wszystkich młodych reżyserów i wyprowadziła ich w jakiś sposób na ludzi. Tak że rzeczywiście zdałem sobie sprawę, że dalej nie. Że trzeba szukać jakiegoś innego wyjścia.

Polish film director Andrzej Wajda (1926-2016) was a towering presence in Polish cinema for six decades. His films, showing the horror of the German occupation of Poland, won awards at Cannes and established his reputation as both story-teller and commentator on Poland's turbulent history. As well as his impressive career in TV and film, he also served on the national Senate from 1989-91.

Listeners: Jacek Petrycki

Cinematographer Jacek Petrycki was born in Poznań, Poland in 1948. He has worked extensively in Poland and throughout the world. His credits include, for Agniezka Holland, Provincial Actors (1979), Europe, Europe (1990), Shot in the Heart (2001) and Julie Walking Home (2002), for Krysztof Kieslowski numerous short films including Camera Buff (1980) and No End (1985). Other credits include Journey to the Sun (1998), directed by Jesim Ustaoglu, which won the Golden Camera 300 award at the International Film Camera Festival, Shooters (2000) and The Valley (1999), both directed by Dan Reed, Unforgiving (1993) and Betrayed (1995) by Clive Gordon both of which won the BAFTA for best factual photography. Jacek Petrycki is also a teacher and a filmmaker.

Tags: Zespół Filmowy X, Bolesław Michalik, Barbara Ślesicka

Duration: 1 minute, 40 seconds

Date story recorded: August 2003

Date story went live: 24 January 2008