Saturdays with Wajda at the Kino Polonia exhibition

Saturdays with Wajda at the Kino Polonia exhibition

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Andrzej Wajda's birth, the National Centre for Film Culture in Łódź invites you to special tours of the exhibition “Kino Polonia”. This largest exhibition in Poland devoted to the history of Polish cinema is full of themes related to one of the most important directors in the history of cinema: the fate of his family, experiences, choices, creativity and the conditions in which he lived and acted.

Until the end of 2026, tours will take place once a month — we chose Saturdays in memory of Andrzej Wajda's birthday — March 6, 1926 was a Saturday.

The rhythm of the tours will be determined by the anniversaries of the premieres and other important events related to the next works of the director.

On May 23 — during the next tour — we will focus on the film “Ash and Diamond”, a work by Andrzej Wajda based on the novel by Jerzy Andrzejewski, whose action begins on Saturday, May 5, 1945.

13 June Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Andrzej Wajda's birth, we invite you to a special guided tour — Saturdays with Wajda at the Kino Polonia exhibition — dedicated to the life and work of the director. On June 13, we will stop for a longer time at the director's most famous film in Łódź. “The Promised Land” has repeatedly won first places in the ratings for the best Polish film of all time. She won an Oscar nomination and was showered with the most prestigious film awards in Poland and in the world. At the exhibition we will meet almost exactly 52 years since the completion of the shooting of this masterpiece, which took place on June 8, 1974.

11 July Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Andrzej Wajda's birth, we invite you to a special guided tour — Saturdays with Wajda at the Kino Polonia exhibition — dedicated to the life and the whole of the director's work. 45 years ago, on July 27, 1981, the premiere of “Man of Iron” took place. Two months earlier, on May 28, 1981, it was presented to a world audience at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Golden Palm — the first in the history of Polish cinema.

15 August Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Andrzej Wajda's birth, we invite you to a special guided tour — Saturdays with Wajda at the Kino Polonia exhibition — dedicated to the life and the whole of the director's work. On August 17, 1968 (Saturday), the premiere of “Przładańec”, a science fiction television comedy based on a script by Stanisław Lem, took place. The film was awarded a special medal at the International Festival of Fantasy and Horror Films in Sitges, Spain.

19 September Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Andrzej Wajda's birth, we invite you to a special guided tour — Saturdays with Wajda at the Kino Polonia exhibition — dedicated to the life and the whole of the director's work. At the exhibition we will meet two days after the 87th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland (September 17, 1939) and two days before the 19th anniversary of the premiere of “Katynia” (21.09.2007) — a film directed by the son of an officer — a victim of the Katyn crime and a mother who was a victim of the Katyn lie.

3 October Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Andrzej Wajda's birth, we invite you to a special guided tour — Saturdays with Wajda at the Kino Polonia exhibition — dedicated to the life and the whole of the director's work. We will meet the day after the 10th anniversary of Andrzej Wajda's death and 10 years after the production of the director's last film — “Afterlife”. The tour will also be an opportunity to invite visitors to the newly opened temporary exhibition dedicated to the director, his film and Władysław Strzeminski.

21 November Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Andrzej Wajda's birth, we invite you to a special guided tour — Saturdays with Wajda at the Kino Polonia exhibition — dedicated to the life and the whole of the director's work. At the exhibition we will meet on the 40th anniversary of the premiere of “Chronicles of Love Accidents” (November 24, 1986), the film considered to be the most lyrical and sensual in Andrzej Wajda's oeuvre. It is a nostalgic trip to the times of childhood and youth based on the novel and according to the script of Tadeusz Konwicki. The writer even played a role in this film, and in addition — like Wajda — he was born exactly 100 years ago (June 22, 1926).

12 December Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Andrzej Wajda's birth, we invite you to a special guided tour — Saturdays with Wajda at the Kino Polonia exhibition — dedicated to the life and the whole of the director's work. We will meet the day before the 45th anniversary of the introduction of martial law and 15 years since the beginning of filming for “Wałęsa. Man of Hope” (December 1, 2011).

Kino Polonia is the largest exhibition about Polish cinematography

On three floors and 1500 square meters there are hundreds of objects from the history of Polish cinematography: posters, cameras, projectors, costumes, props and production documents. An extraordinary set of souvenirs was collected, a huge number of films were acquired, dozens of video essays, film collages and mappings were created. Thanks to the efforts of the NCKF, the oldest device for displaying moving images has been reconstructed - a biopleograph, 100 iconic costumes from famous Polish films have been bought and renovated, and in the showcases, besides the most valuable prizes for domestic filmmakers, there will also be a place for cute little bears Misia Uszatka, who has been lulling children to sleep for several generations.