AP News, June 18th, 2007
Andrzej Wajda was honored Monday by the United States for films that chronicled the development of the Solidarity freedom movement.
Wajda, who supported the pro-democracy movement that helped topple communism in 1989, is the first recipient of the Czeslaw Milosz Award for Contributions to U.S. Polish Understanding. The award is to be presented annually by the U.S. embassy in Warsaw.
"Andrzej Wajda is being honored because he is not only one of the most acclaimed directors in the history of film, but also because he brought Polish culture and politics to the American and international audiences through his films," U.S. Ambassador Victor Ashe said in a ceremony at his residence.
"Many times he put his career at risk in order to defend truth and freedom of speech," Ashe said. "As Steven Spielberg once said, Wajda belongs to Poland, but his films are part of the cultural treasure of all mankind."
Wajda recited poems by Milosz, the Nobel-winning poet in whose name the award was created. "His poems have accompanied me my whole life," Wajda said of the writer, who died in 2004.
The 81-year-old filmmaker received an honorary Oscar in 2000 in recognition of works that maneuvered between a repressive communist government and an audience yearning for freedom.
He established himself as a key figure in Polish cinema in 1955 with his first feature film, "A Generation," a study of the effects of World War II on the nation's disillusioned youth. In the 1981 film, "Man of Iron," Wajda chronicled the development of Solidarity, featuring footage of the movement's founder and leader Lech Walesa.
