On the face of it, the story [of A Generation] appears to be fairly stereotyped. At the centre there is a character with the required hallmarks of the "positive hero": high-minded, uncompromising, dogged, with all the mandatory virtues and not a trace of doubts, complications or crises. (p. 19)

It is not enough to say that A Generation was made with such skill, feeling and power that it took these pitfalls in its stride. It deserves closer scrutiny to show where and how the shifting of its emphasis was brought about. Let me touch only on the most salient point: the characterisation of the two protagonists. It is a fair guess that the inner world to which Wajda personally felt most attuned was that of Jasio Krone—edgy, troubled, bewildered, switching from one extreme to another, and ultimately tragic—and not with Stach, the dour proletarian not to be...