Andrzej Wajda’s debut feature is an intimate account of growing up in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, and marks the beginning of his “war trilogy” that continued with Kanał (screening October 12) and ended with Ashes and Diamonds (screening October 19). Based on the eponymous novel by Bohdan Czeszko, A Generation paints a detailed psychological profile of a young rebel who is forced to embrace adulthood prematurely by joining the underground communist resistance. Already in his first film, Wajda’s trademark is evident: the volatile mixture of personal and political, the questioning of official, state-sanctioned historical narratives, the corrosive effects of ideology on an individual, the price of responsibility—all also staples of the so-called Polish Film School that Wajda helped to create with this film.

The second installment of Wajda’s “war trilogy” shifts from depicting Polish civilian life under Nazi occupation to the portrayal of brave Home Army resistance fighters as they try to escape the pursuing Germans through the labyrinthine sewers of Warsaw. A claustrophobic study of heroism under immense pressure, Kanał is based on a true event and considered the first film ever made about the Warsaw Uprising. The screening at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize, also brought Andrzej Wajda international acclaim that he would enjoy for the next sixty years.

Wajda’s first bona fide masterpiece and the conclusion of his informal “war trilogy,” Ashes and Diamonds bravely depicts the uneasy Polish political realities in the immediate aftermath of World War II. The protagonist of the film is a former Home Army soldier, Maciek, now tasked with assassinating a high-ranking communist leader. But instead of a straightforward thriller, Wajda delivers a proper film noir, and at the same time a uniquely bleak, socialist riff on disturbed-youth classics such as Rebel Without a Cause or The Wild One.

Probably Wajda’s most famous film, Man of Iron is an unflinching depiction of one of the most important events in recent Polish history: the rise of the independent, free Solidarity labor movement and its initial success in negotiations with the ruling political system. We follow the story through the eyes of a corrupt journalist, assigned by the Party to present Solidarity in a negative light. This bold, sprawling epic was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Palme d’Or at Cannes.