Jerzy Kawalerowicz is a major figure in the postwar East European cinema, perhaps best known here for his 1961 film Mother Joan of the Angels. Like his contemporaries Andrzej Wajda and Andrzej Munk, Kawalerowicz, a former art student, helped to radicalize the Polish cinema in the mid-fifties by moving away from the constraints of social realism that dominated the early postwar cinema, and introducing a variety of styles and genres in which to address issues of history, personal freedom and social revolution. This month we present some of Kawalerowicz's earliest films as well as his 1983 feature Austeria. The series is organized by the Film Center of the Art Institute of Chicago in collaboration with Film Polski.
