A major reassessment of the great Polish director Andrzej Wajda, who received a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award in 2000, this timely new collection covers all aspects of his work. From the early trilogy of the 1950s -- A Generation, Kanal, Ashes and Diamonds -- to the 1999 epic Pan Tadeusz, the contributors consider Wajda's daring innovations in style, his concern with Polish history and nationhood, and his artistic defiance of authoritarian rule during the Cold War, particularly in such films as Man of Marble and Man of Iron. It is a thus a wide-ranging examination of a prolific film-maker whose work over four decades reflects the changing nature of cinema itself.