With the Red Army at the gates of Warsaw in the summer of 1944 the Poles in the city rose up against the Nazi occupiers . Men , women and children took part in it as they waited for the Soviet liberators . Unfortunately the Red Army doesn't do liberation and Joe Stalin didn't recognise any difference between Nazi stormtroopers and Polish nationalist so the Red Army sat outside the gates waiting for one side to beat the other so that there'd be no resistance for them entering he Warsaw capital . The number of Nazi dead was counted in thousands , the Polish dead in hundreds of thousands . It was a testimony to Polish courage and Soviet cynicism

Andrzej Wajda's KANAL tells part of the story . Certainly the Polish courage is well represented . It wasn't just the Polish underground resistance army who took part in the uprising . So did intellectuals , old men , woman and children and this film represents the diverse cross pattern . Armed only with small arms they fought off battle hardened SS divisions who had aircraft , tanks and heavy artillery . What the film sadly doesn't mention is the role the Soviets played by stabbing the Poles in the back . It's understandable when communist Poland was still under Soviet influence . Nikita Khruschev had started his " de-Stalinism " program but such a change was like replacing Nazism with fascism so while there was some benefits to this new regime it doesn't stop the downside of the fundamentalist dictatorship

That said Wajda has made a classic European film . I remembered it from 20 years ago and when I tracked it down I wasn't disappointed by it . It's a mix of styles with the scenes above ground mirroring the Italian Neo-Realist movement with the scenes set under the eponymous sewers ( Kanal being Polish for sewer ) being inspired by German Expressionism . The characters are people you can believe in from Lt Zadra the courageous patriot in charge of the company to Daisy , a morally ambiguous ( A prostitute ? ) woman . The director doesn't make the mistake like many film makers of showing what a sewer is . More often than not they're just a cosy film set . Not here . It's a sanitation system full of faeces and urine and dangerous gases and the characters have to crawl through it . This reality combined with a haunting mood muzak by Jan Krenz makes KANAL a riveting film

There are a couple of flaws to it however . The lack of any mention to the Soviets is forgivable as it's understandable . What isn't so forgivable is that the time frame is rather confusing . Many of the characters succumb to madness but considering they've fought off the Nazis for 56 days would a few hours in the sewers cause something Nazi shells were incapable of ? It's never stated how Daisy would know the layout of the sewer system and if she's so important why not let her lead the party . There's also an unlikely need for characters to spout existentialist dialogue at unlikely times . There's also the irritating lack of consistency where matches not working in one scene only to have them working a few scenes later and characters telling their comrades not to shout in case the Germans hear them only to have the same characters shout in the following scene

These are minor flaws despite being noticeable . KANAL is a film that will stay with you and scenes will burn themselves in to the memory such as a soldier asking a young , pretty woman lying on a stretcher if she's unwell only to see the blanket fall away revealing her right leg has been amputated above the knee . You'll also be able to remember long after seeing it who gets killed in what order . This might mean it doesn't have the same impact upon repeated viewing but it's a film everyone should see at least once

It's 1944 in the last days of the Warsaw uprising. Lieutenant Zadra commands a company of desperate freedom fighters. They have inferior weapons facing overwhelming German forces. They are soon surrounded by the Germans and ordered to retreat into the sewers. They find themselves cut off and stuck in the dark tunnels.

The above ground fighting has certain moments. I didn't know that the Germans were using armored remote control vehicles. There are some action and one tank. It has lots of devastated landscape. There are a few too many main characters. Once the movie goes underground, it goes in a small maze. It's confining but not that intense.

Agnieszka Holland's recent "In Darkness" told the story of a Lwow sewer worker who hid the city's Jewish population from the Nazis. Andrzej Wajda's "Kanał" tells a similar story. Set during the Warsaw Uprising, it looks at some people who have to hide in the sewers. The existence of the three groups of people in this putrid setting is like a descent into the darkest depths of the human soul.

This was the second installment of Wajda's War Trilogy, after "A Generation" and before "Ashes and Diamonds". All three serve to not only show the horrors of the Nazi occupation of Poland, but also show how the people push through even in the most desperate situations. In an interview, Wajda noted that the scene where Daisy and Korab find the bars represents the time that the Soviet army (presumably across the river) was approaching Warsaw but waited for the Nazis to actually depart the city so that it would be easier to take. The movie is as much an indictment of Stalinism as it is of Nazism.

Anyway, it's definitely a great one. I recommend it.