Directed by Andrzej Wajda • 1957 • Poland
Starring Teresa Izewska, Tadeusz Janczar, Wienczyslaw Glinski
“Watch them closely, for these are the last hours of their lives,” announces a narrator, foretelling the tragedy that unfolds as a war-ravaged company of Home Army resistance fighters tries to escape the Nazi onslaught through the sewers of Warsaw. Determined to survive, the men and women slog through the hellish labyrinth, piercing the darkness with the strength of their individual spirits. Based on true events, KANAL was the first film ever made about the Warsaw Uprising and brought director Andrzej Wajda to the attention of international audiences, earning the Special Jury Prize in Cannes in 1957.
Up Next in The Good War Revisited
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The Cranes Are Flying
Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov • 1957 • Soviet Union
Starring Tatiana Samoilova, Alexei Batalov, Vasily MerkuryevThis landmark film by the virtuosic Mikhail Kalatozov was heralded as a revelation in the post-Stalin Soviet Union and the international cinema community alike. It tells the story of ...
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Fires on the Plain
Directed by Kon Ichikawa • 1959 • Japan
Starring Eiji Funakoshi, Osamu Takizawa, Mickey CurtisAn agonizing portrait of desperate Japanese soldiers stranded in a strange land during World War II, Kon Ichikawa’s FIRES ON THE PLAIN is a compelling descent into psychological and physical oblivion. ...
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The Bridge
Directed by Bernhard Wicki • 1959 • West Germany
Starring Karl Michael Balzer, Folker Bohnet, Michael HinzBernhard Wicki’s astonishing THE BRIDGE was the first major antiwar film to come out of Germany after World War II, as well as the nation’s first postwar film to be widely shown internation...
