EVENINGS WITH WAJDA by GQ Poland

Evenings with Wajda by GQ Poland is a signature series of open-air film screenings devoted to the work of Andrzej Wajda — one of the most important directors in Polish cinema, and a filmmaker whose work spoke in a uniquely compelling way about freedom, emotions, identity, and human relationships. As part of GQ Poland’s summer program at Centrum Praskie Koneser, we return to films that not only defined Polish visual culture but also shaped how we think about contemporary sensibility, lifestyle, and relationships.
This is intelligent, emotional, and timeless cinema — stories of ambition, longing, love, choices, and change. Themes that remain relevant regardless of the era.
The program includes films particularly resonant for GQ’s contemporary audience: Innocent Sorcerers, Everything for Sale, The Maids of Wilko, and Hunting Flies.

EVERYTHING FOR SALE

Feature film
Directed by: Andrzej Wajda
Poland 1968

Age rating: 16+

A film crew waits in vain for a missing actor. He is being searched for by Ela (E. Czyżewska), the actor’s wife, and Beata (B. Tyszkiewicz), the director’s wife. Eventually word reaches them that the actor has died tragically, jumping from a speeding train. Andrzej (A. Łapicki), the director, wonders how to finish the film under these circumstances. Will it be possible to make a film about the void he has left behind? The director decides to bring in a new star — Daniel (D. Olbrychski) — to take the missing actor’s place. This self-reflexive film, directed and written by Andrzej Wajda, was an artistic working-through of grief after the death of Zbigniew Cybulski — the iconic actor of the Polish Film School. Cybulski appeared in three films directed by Wajda: “A Generation”, “Ashes and Diamonds”, and “Innocent Sorcerers”. His role as Maciek Chełmicki in “Ashes and Diamonds” created the myth of a romantic hero that remained the reference point for all the actor’s subsequent roles. Cybulski’s name is never once spoken in the film — there was no need, because the circumstances of his tragic death at the Wrocław railway station on 8 January 1967 were still vivid in everyone’s memory. To reinforce the link between fiction and reality, the characters were given the actors’ own first names. The film references paintings by Andrzej Wróblewski, such as “Execution” (1949). We learn about the search for the film’s form from Jerzy Ziarnik’s documentary “On Set” — which adds yet another layer of self-reflexivity to Wajda’s work.

Plac Konesera
7 August 2026
Free admission