The lead protagonist of a film disappears during shooting. The search is underway when it turns out that the actor has died in an accident. The director decides to continue shooting without him. Andrzej Wajda’s most personal film is a tribute to his favourite actor, Zbigniew Cybulski. The film-within-a-film reproduces almost exactly what actually happened, bringing Wajda’s genuinely felt sense of loss and the necessity of moving on into almost unsettlingly close proximity. In the end, Daniel Olbrychski takes Cybulski’s place on screen and in actuality, thereby opening a new chapter in the oeuvre of Wajda.











