Lech Walesa, film critic

Filmmaking can be risky and tricky business indeed - especially when a movie portrays characters from contemporary history. Just ask German directing legend Volker Schlondorff (pictured right) who won an Academy Award for “The Tin Drum.” He had plenty of stories to share in a panel discussion Tuesday night after a New York screening of his latest film, “Strike,” about a nearly unknown woman who was a driving force behind the Polish Solidarity union movement and a strike it organized that in the end led to the downfall of the Communist regime. Indeed, Schlondorff admitted that “Strike” has earned him criticism from various sides, including the union’s creator Anna Walentynowicz and its legendary leader and later Polish president, Lech Walesa. Walesa is portrayed in the film as someone who took the spotlight and maybe even sold out, while his female colleague was the one with all the vision and heart. So, how did Walesa react to his movie?

Schlondorff said he was “very happy” and “also very nervous” that the political legend showed up at the movie’s grand opening in Gdansk. He felt though that Walesa had mixed feelings as well. “Let’s first see what you’ve done,” the director remembers him saying before the screening. Afterwards, Walesa got up, according to Schlondorff, and enjoyed it as the applause for the film turned to him, before saying: “As an electrician, I like the film very much.” Walesa also complemented Schlondorff on recreating the atmosphere of the era well, while his wife told him the up-and-coming Polish actor Andrzej Chyra who portrays him looks better than Walesa ever did, according to Schlondorff. However, that’s where the praise ended abruptly, he recalld, as Walesa went into what he called a 45 minute political speech and rebuttal. “At the end, noone but him was left” in the theater, the German director said. Schlondorff also said that the woman who the film’s protagonist is based on was also not too happy with parts of the film in several screenings, which led to some revisions. Before Tuesday’s screening at the posh Tribeca Grand Hotel, Schlondorff, had a warning for the audience - a mix of U.S. and European film and political representatives that included John Malkovich, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and the consul generals of Germany and Poland. Despite the use of some historical TV footage and its basis on real events, his film is by no means a documentary or scientifically historical account, Schlondorff emphasized. “You are about to watch a propaganda movie,” he said. “This sounds like a joke, but it’s true.” He added that he wanted “to build a monument” for Walentynowicz, who he said never sought the spotlight. Schlondorff also explained that he made the film for young Poles who don’t remember the hard work and sacrifice that led to the creation of Solidarnosc and for Germans who don’t appreciate what their neighbors did for them. “The (Berlin) Wall may not have come down that easily” without Solidarity and similar forces of rebellion in other countries that were once under Communist control, Schlondorff said. Asked after the screening, why he didn’t want to put a tag line such as “a true story” on the film, the German director replied: “When I see that, I always think it’s all lies.” To underline that not all is based on reality here, Schlondorff said he changed the name of his protagonist Anna Walentynowicz. Asked by the audience why he became intrigued by the Solidarity story, Schlondorff said he shot “Tin Drum” in Gdansk and wasn’t aware of the political and social struggles there. When he found out about it all later, he said he wanted to return and make a movie. Interestingly, “Strike” also reunites him with “Tin Drum” actress Katharina Thalbach. He also told attendees that he even took a crash course in Polish as the film is in that language. The movie’s U.S. opening on June 15 in New York - followed by Los Angeles two weeks later - comes courtesy of Netflix Inc.’s Red Envelope Entertainment and Laemmle/Zeller Films. (Georg Szalai)