The official socialist realist system—with its predictable conflicts, its negative types and positive heroes, and its progressive and optimistic resolutions, encouraged the production of grossly distorted representations of actual life and actual history.
—Eagle (1982)

The essence of a political film is in speaking about what is unspoken; in exposing what is concealed; in unveiling the realities behind the events.
—Wajda quoted in Yakir (1984)

It is interesting to observe that through our first-ever “Fall Film Competition,” the group has quite serendipitously assembled a film s that can arguably be considered “Films of Social Defiance.” Even though not all can be classified under an official rubric of revolution, all four are enlightening with respect to a time of radical change in a cultural or national sense. Ashes and Diamonds is celebrated for its appeal to an oppressed people who hear a voice that resonates with them in its representations and symbolism that defies socialist realism mandates. Continue reading Ashes and Diamonds: Wajda and Socialist Realism →