Mass for late director Wajda

Among those present were Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture Piotr Gliński, presidential aide Wojciech Kolarski, former presidents Bronisław Komorowski and Aleksander Kwaśniewski.

Also attending were many prominent actors, including Krystyna Janda, Olgierd Łukaszewicz, Marek Kondrat and Beata Tyszkiewicz, who starred in Wajda’s films.

On Wednesday, Wajda will be buried at the Salwator Cemetery in Kraków, a city where he studied at the Fine Arts Academy, spent much time and worked with the Stary Theatre company.

Wajda died on 9 October, aged 90. His output includes over 40 feature films and numerous highly-acclaimed theatre productions.

In 2000 he received an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. Four of his films won Oscar nominations in the Best Foreign Language Film category: “The Promised Land”, “The Maids of Wilko”, “Man of Iron”, and “Katyń”.

His last film “Afterimage”, which focuses on the life of Władysław Strzemiński – a pioneer of the avant-garde in Polish visual arts in the first half of the 20th century – is the Polish candidate for this year’s Academy Award in the same category. (mk/rg)