Andrzej Wajda's Ashes and Diamonds (1957)

Alicia Chmielewski
1-10-07

Andrzej Wajda, Ashes and Diamonds

As I read the Paul Coates review of Andrzej Wajda’s Ashes and Diamonds I was struck by one statement in particular which helped to clarify the film a bit for me, but more importantly, which got me to think about just how ambiguous a film it really was and continues to be. Coates writes, “…tragedy is precipitated not by any flaw within a character but by the collision of two figures, each of whom advocates a one-sided good. Tragedy becomes a matter of situation, not character” (3). This situational view of tragedy applies to both Maciek and Szczuka as each man represents a one-sided political vision for Poland; Maciek dedicated to the Home Army and Szczuka to the communist faction. It is never made clear whether Wajda, or many of the film’s characters themselves for that matter, really desire to side strongly with either side. Yet, this observation does not allow us to conclude that the best solution is to take both sides equally either. The only character to play both sides without commitment comes to ruin as well, though not through death as Maciek and Szczuka do. Perhaps one reason why the film was able to make it through the censorship of its time was because it offered such a mixed message; a message that in itself held the truth about Poland during this era of the thaw – that Poland became a nation of blindness, confusion and loss of national identity during World War II, as the Nazis threatened to strip many Poles of their identity and to wipe out entire groups of people.
The religious disrespect and corruption that is highlighted throughout the film with images of the upside down crucified Christ and the sacrilegious act Maciek performs in attempting to fix Krystyna’s shoe while the bodies of the two men he has wrongfully killed lie on the alter in front of him, symbolize the loss of national identity throughout Poland after the war. Poland is a deeply Catholic country and the strong sense of religious disrespect illustrates that something is threatening it within the core of its people’s being. Both the communist faction and the Home Army bring about the religious corruption, however, as is clearly displayed in the ethical dilemma of Maciek over his wrongfully committed murders, the bodies from which linger on the altar. If the Church symbolizes the broader society, than Maciek’s anguish at seeing these two bodies symbolizes the reality that innocent people are dying as the Home Army stages war on communist Poles; that the Home Army is no more heroic than the communist faction once this reality is fully realized. Both sides may be hoping that diamonds will come one day from the ashes of the current political situation, the diamonds being extra-political life experiences, such as love and relationships.
Maciek calls Krystyna a diamond because she is his love and is the reason he comes to consider abandoning the blindness he is living under, killing fellow Poles every day. However, after considering opposing scenes offering sympathy for both sides, I understand why Coates’s final statement about the film was: “There are only ashes, no diamonds” (3). Even Krystyna is pulled into the final disillusioned Polonaise at the film’s close, thus being transformed to the same collective ash of the entire nation. The dance typically opens stately balls of high Polish society, yet during this scene there is no true joy, only the need to follow the communist faction without question. It corresponds well with the rest of the film in that no matter what side of the conflict one follows, the outcome is the same – there is no ethical resolution and no truly unifying freedom in either the choice.