Natallia Radzina: Andrzej Wajda Believed In Free Belarus

The ingenious Polish film director thought of Belarusians with deep respect.

Andrzej Wajda will be buried at Salwator Cemetery in Krakow on Wednesday, October 19. The funeral will be of a private character. Andrzej Waida directed dozens of movies throughout his life, the most famous of them were “The Channel,” “Ashes and Diamond,” “Everything for Sale,” “Pilate and Others,” “Man of Marble,” “Man of Iron,” “Without Anesthesia,” “The Maids of Wilko,” “Danton,” “Demons,” “Pan Tadeusz,” “Katyn,” “Walesa: Man of Hope" and others.

Andrzej Wajda was not only a prominent director, but also a politically active person who, among other things, supported the struggle for the freedom and independence of Belarus, charter97.org Editor-in-Chief Natallia Radzina recalls in her interview to Radio Racyja:

– First of all, he was an internationally famous director, and he remains such a personality for Belarus as well. Many Belarusians watched the films directed by Andrzej Waida, grew up on them, and experienced their enlightening and up-bringing effect. He will always be a cult-figure for us in the first place.

Secondly, he was a person who carefully watched the situation in Belarus. To Andrzej Waida, everything that concerned our country, including the very existence of dictatorship, political prisoners, the absence of freedom of media and free elections, was important.

In the very first years after charter97.org started working abroad, we contacted Andrzej Wajda in Warsaw and he was willing to cooperate with us straightaway.

– Did he visit your office?

– Yes, and not just once. He was severely ill at that time, it was hard for him to move, he walked with crutches, but he managed to visit us several times. During his first visit, he met with the former political prisoners and their families, with the journalists of charter97.org. We spoke for two hours or two hours and a half.

He told a lot about his movies: how they were filmed, how it was for him to live at the times of the Polish People’s Republic, how the Polish underground resistance struggled against the communist authorities, he took serious interest to political prisoners of Belarus (dozens of people were in the Belarusian prisons at the time), expressed his support to them, watched the video of the Square–December 19, 2010 and would always say that Belarus will be free, that he believed in this.

Later, in 2014, he awarded the “Charter’97” prize. He didn’t feel very well but came willingly. I just called him and he said “Of course I will come”. He was the one to hand the award – the national award “Charter’97” for protecting human rights, named after Victar Ivashkevich – for the Belarus Free Theatre.

Back then, he spoke a lot about the idea that an artist should be inseparable with his country’s destiny. This is an important moment. Wajda was a brilliant director who never got ivory-towered.

– How did Andrzej Wajda speak of Belarus? It is known that his last film was about Uladzislau Straminski – a man who was born in Minsk, worked in Vileyka. Did you feel any sentiments to Belarus in his words?

– Yes, a great respect towards Belarusians could be sensed. Who knows Poland, knows how much it is worth. One could sense respect to the people struggling for freedom in Belarus, admiration with these people, a deep interest to the whole situation, to the Belarusian culture. I never heard something like “half of Belarus is Poland” from Andrzej Wajda. This just never happened.

He would always say: “Belarusians remain a nation, you should be free. Belarus should be in Europe as it has a European destiny”. Andrzej Wajda realized the threats coming from Russia towards Belarus, he knew Lukashenka was a marionette of Kremlin, he stressed that our way leads to Europe and we should follow it.

Andrzej Wajda has been recognized worldwide as a genius. The director received the "Oscar" and "Palme d'Or" at Cannes. Also, the last Wajda's film "Afterimage" (pol. “Powidoki”), the protagonist of which – the artist Uladzislau Straminski – is directly related to Belarus, was nominated for the "Oscar”. Andrzej Wajda was very interested in our country. In addition to cooperation with the "Charter'97", the director also met with the students of the Belarusian–language Lyceum named after Yakub Kolas.