Set in World War II Poland, Samson is both a powerful statement on the nature of freedom in an oppressed environment, and a brilliant psychological study of a man in existential crisis. Jakub Gold, imprisoned for accidentally killing a schoolmate in a brawl, is released at the outbreak of World War II to a new prison, the Warsaw Ghetto. Though he manages to escape, he finds the “outside” a still larger prison, his Semitic features forcing him into hiding and a crisis of identity which leaves him two options: to return to the Ghetto, his fate, he realizes, sealed; or to take his chances in the streets among Nazis who have the “right” to shoot him on sight. Choosing the latter, he comes in contact with members of the Polish Resistance, and discovers a third, but meaningful, and therefore triumphant, way to die.
“Wajda's film is remarkable for its combination of realism with a baroque opulence, for its extraordinarily fluid camerawork...and for Wajda's use of naturalistic symbols which achieve an archetypal significance. Serge Merlin's performance...is powerful both for its subtlety, and for sustaining the energy of the inner-life of the character.” --Milos Stehlik, Audio Brandon