Andrzej Wajda's Ashes and diamonds remains an outstanding film, notwithstanding the passage of time, half a century, to be pracise. This masterpiece, whose power of expression and sheer artistic rank can not but be noticed, represents the standard-bearing accomplishment of Polish film school. It has gained a permanent place among the classics of world cinema. It was filmed in 1958, when the Polish film school reached the peak of its development, a year when Andrzej Munk's Eroica, Tadeusz Konwicki's Last Day of Summer and Wojciech Jerzy Has' Farewells were premiered. It was also extraordinarily popular with the public, and much of the credit for this has to go to Zbigniew Cybulski, who in Wajda's film created an unsurpassed and unforgettable role, possibly the most evocative in the history of our cinema.