The Monument and the Sewer: Memory and Death in Wajda’s Kanal (1957)

Abstract

Andrzej Wajda’s Kanał/Kanal (1957) was expected by many audience members finally to portray the ‘true’ history of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, a history that had been distorted by Poland’s Communist government. This article argues that the virtual sphere of cinema could enact particular commemorative practices, partly founded upon constructing the viewer as a witness to authentic events. My analysis of the film’s internal conflicts partly draws upon the film’s original reception in the Polish press, focusing upon the vocabularies and discourses that were available to writers attempting to describe Kanal’s status as monument, its privileging of truth and witnessing, as well as its visceral force, and its refusal of closure and consolation.