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.

THE MAIDS OF WILKO
Feature film
Directed by: Andrzej Wajda
Poland 1979

Age rating: 16+

After the death of a friend, and on account of his health, Wiktor Ruben (D. Olbrychski) decides to leave for the countryside to revisit a place he frequented in his youth — the homes of his aunt and uncle and, neighboring them, of the titular maids of Wilko. He finds them all there together: the lady of the house Kazia (K. Zachwatowicz) with her son, Julcia (A. Seniuk) with her daughters, and also Jola (M. Komorowska) and Zosia (S. Celińska); Tunia, too, is now grown up. Only Fela is missing — she died years earlier. Walks, memories, shared meals, a crossing of the river — all this unfolds in search of lost time and as if outside of time. Andrzej Wajda and his crew made the film as a tribute to Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, poet and writer. The author of the story appears in person on screen in the very first shots, and the editing suggests an identification of him with the main character. The story is, in fact, autobiographical in nature and concerns the writer’s stays at the manor in Byszewy near Łódź. Beyond masterpieces such as Wajda’s “The Birch Wood” or “Mother Joan of the Angels”, Iwaszkiewicz’s stories provided the literary basis for the medium-length debuts of the younger generation at Film Unit X, including Agnieszka Holland’s “An Evening at Abdon’s”. Among the director’s collaborators on “The Maids of Wilko” was also Magdalena Łazarkiewicz, who returned to the manor location in Radachówka near Kołbiel to make her own film — an adaptation of Tadeusz Różewicz’s drama “White Marriage”. The film was awarded the Jury Special Prize at the Polish Film Festival, along with a prize for the production design by Alan Starski and Maria Osiecka-Kuminek. The film’s success was sealed by a nomination for the Oscar — the Award of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — in the category of Best Foreign Language Film (1976).

Plac Konesera
14 August 2026
Free admission