Janda

Polish heavyweight director Andrzej Wajda helms this unusual, way-offbeat project, whose complicated backstory explains the complex structure on hand. Ostensibly the tale of a middle-aged woman who grows obsessed with a much younger man in the years following World War II, while facing her own impending death at the same time, the film reached mid-production when lead actress Krystyna Janda lost her beloved husband to a terminal illness and began to work through the grief. Hit by creative inspiration, Wajda decided to modify the film by superimposing Janda's reading of a deeply intimate, confessional monologue onto the filmed material, thus commenting pointedly on the original work….

Based on a true story reflecting the Stalinist terror of the early 1950s, Ryszard Bugajski’s harrowing film was banned under martial law in Poland and only became available on underground VHS through a copy smuggled out by the director at great risk. Tonia (Krystyna Janda), a singer in a sleazy cabaret, is imprisoned without explanation. Days become weeks become months, varied only by the persuasion, intimidation and torture of interrogation. Janda’s outstanding depiction, of a woman who becomes heroic in the face of torture and imprisonment, takes you to places few films are willing to explore.