October 31st, 2020 
https://www.kanopy.com/product/ashes-and-diamonds-0
This film is about the final days of the war in Poland, focusing on the resistance fighters. It shows the complicated dynamics within a country that had barely been independent for 20 years before it was invaded and divided up between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. At the end of the war, while much of Europe was being liberated from Nazi occupation, Poland was preparing to be under Soviet rule indefinitely. The experience there contrasts sharply with the atmosphere of triumph in other parts of Europe, and shows how the impact of the war did not end with the Armistice. It also gives us a preview of Cold War attitudes rethinking the effects of the war, since the film itself was made in 1958 by one of the most famous directors, Andrzej Wajda and starred an actor who was known as the Polish James Dean.
After watching the film, your post revision assignment is to revise and expand your posts from Weeks 5 on why people go to war incorporating ideas and contrasting your impressions of war from The Film is “All Quiet on the Western Front” with your impressions from Ashes and Diamonds.
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