Wajda has lived chiefly in the southern city since World War II, during which he was a member of Poland's underground Home Army (AK).
The concert was held at the ICE Krakow Congress Centre, one of the largest architectural investments in the city of recent decades, and the Sinfonietta Cracovia Orchestra played a series of scores from Wajda's films, including favourites 'The Promised Land' and 'Pan Tadeusz', both by the late composer Wojciech Kilar.
Photo: PAP/Jacek Bednarczyk
Mayor of Kraków Jacek Majchrowski thanked the director for backing a number of cultural investments in the city, including a museum of Japanese and Oriental culture, while also paying tribute to his achievements behind the camera.
“It has been written that in 'As Years go by, as Days go by', Wajda showed his very own Kraków, just as Fellini once showed his own Rome,” the mayor said.
Wajda won an honorary Oscar in 2000 for his lifetime achievement in film, and other career highlights include the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1981 for the Solidarity-inspired classic 'Man of Iron'.
He has been nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar four times, a feat achieved by no other Polish director. The nominated films were 'The Promised Land' (1975), 'The Maids of Wilko' (1979), 'Man of Iron' (1981) and 'Katyń' (2007).
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Wajda is currently working on the post-production of a new feature film about Władysław Strzemiński, an artist who fell foul of Poland's communist regime.
However, he revealed in an interview with the Gazeta Wyborcza daily over the weekend that he is already thinking of subsequent films.
“I have several ideas,” he enthused.
Meanwhile, during his address on Sunday at the jubilee concert, the director did not miss the opportunity to crack a joke about working with a film crew at his advanced age.
“The older I get I just have to say: 'Tell me the title and what may name is.'” (nh)
Source: PAP