WITHOUT ANESTHESIA | WAJDA: re- visions. Review of films by Andrzej Wajda on the 100th anniversary of his birth

A depressing picture of the Polish political and social reality of the second half of the 1970s, and at the same time a critical diagnosis of attitudes at a time of mistrust and oppression by the system. A popular reporter — modeled after Ryszard Kapuściński — returns from another journalistic expedition to Poland. Surprisingly, he assumes that he becomes — without any explanation — the object of organized obscenity. At work, he is indoctrinated by a younger colleague, in the environment he is accused of conjuncturalism and opportunism, at home his wife files for divorce. So far, a successful man, suddenly abandoned by everyone, is put in Kafkovskaya's situation, losing faith in any values or even the meaning of life.
Zbigniew Zapasiewicz's excellent interpretation gave the character of Jerzy a tragedy, but also a certain ambiguity. The hero once used the benefits of a system that first allowed him to appanage with an invisible mechanism to ruthlessly destroy the old luminaries without warning. Few films have so brutally shown the mechanism of communist totalitarianism, the apparatus of hypocrisy, opportunism, environmental envy, the promotion of mediocrity and the temptation of promotion. Few films have turned out to be so prophetic and still relevant, describing a world of degradation of values, objectification of people, lies and manipulation.