IT HAS been said that behind many a successful man there is an
astonished woman. Wałęsa: Man of Hope (Cert. 12A) seems to
bear this out. Danuta Wałęsa (a delightful Agnieszka Grochowska,
who also appears in the film We're All Christs) not only
stands by her man, but often props up the charismatic shipyard
worker whose Solidarity Movement led to the overthrow of Poland's
communist government.
Throughout the film, Lech Wałęsa (in a convincing performance by
Robert Więckiewicz) draws strength not only from his wife but also
from a rather conservative Roman Catholicism. Moreover, even though
the film finishes before Wałęsa's controversial presidency, he is
already living out his campaign slogan ("I don't want to, but I
have to") - a vivid embodiment of Kant's categorical
imperative.
The film is the work of the much lauded 87-year-old director
Andrzej Wajda, whose work employs a subtle Christian iconography
(e.g. the ironically titled Holy Week), with which he
chronicles Polish society. His latest shows no sign that age is
inhibiting his endeavour or creativity. In many ways,
Wałęsa is a companion piece to Man of Marble
(1977) and Man of Iron (1981), both of which depict a
charismatic working-class hero fighting a totalitarian political
system. In fact, Wałęsa makes an appearance in the latter film, as
by then the dispute at the Gdansk shipyard had kicked off the
ultimate demise of communist rule. Both earlier films on the
subject, though, were more despondent; harsh Soviet bureaucracy
typifies Hannah Arendt's "banality of evil".
In retrospect, Wajda (as the film's subtitle indicates) is much
more hopeful. While he never paints Wałęsa as other than a flawed
human being, Wajda finds, as he always has, diamonds among the
ashes. Temper tantrums and stubbornness go hand in hand with charm
and eloquence. Victories of the human soul against indomitable odds
figure here. The most hopeless of situations are preludes for
miracles, major or minor.
The film doesn't shy away from the incident when Wałęsa, under
police duress, agrees to become a state informer against comrades.
Instead, we learn subsequently how he turns this potentially
disgraceful act into a contemporary version of Jesus's parable of
the unjust steward, one that advances the workers' cause. In this
rendering of the parable, Wałęsa and his wife are not only the
wiser children of this world, but, to a great extent, manage to be
children of light, too. Whether this is enough to restore the
ambivalent reputation of the former President of Poland remains to
be seen.