THE MONUMENTAL MEMORY? ON THE FINAL FILM OF ANDRZEJ WAJDA

The paper attempts to study the Afterimages, the last Andrzej Wajda’s film, in the light of its critical reception in Poland. The author investigates what place in collective memory of Polish viewers oc-cupies both the director and the protagonist — Władysław Strzemiński. The author argues that the exceptional circumstances, like jubilee celebrations and director’s funeral — turned critical attention away from the film itself to the entire director’s oeuvre. Afterimages, interpreted with the category of “monumental memory”, allows the author of the presented paper to show the place of Wajda’s work in Polish contemporary film culture. The author argues that this peculiar position is determined by a combination of social expectations and imaginations, and historical conditions, but above all by the way of perceiving the role of art in a changing society. In this context the question about problematic memory of the avant-garde seems to be crucial.