Poland's submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy in 2016 is a low-key Kurosawa-esque but rigorous testament to artistic freedom from the most grandiose cineaste in the history of his country.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 21, 2025

'Afterimage' may be Strzemiński's bio-pic, but the images of endless breadlines, drafty hospital beds, and cigarette smoke hanging in the cold Polish air come across like memories tattooed on Wajda's brain.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 14, 2021

Wajda's film is perfectly well-made and much of it rings immediately true...

| Jul 8, 2020

Wajda's loving examination of heroes has reached its logical conclusion in Afterimage, with the study of Strzemiński as unforgiving as the winter.

| Aug 27, 2018

A brilliant, straightforward and passionate homage biopic from one dissident Polish artist to another.

| Original Score: A- | Jul 29, 2018

Andrzej Wajda shares testament with the (bold) artist Strzemiński. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 14, 2017

Impeccably photographed by Pawel Edelman (The Pianist, Ray), Afterimage is a well-told story that eschews any sort of abstraction or ambiguity.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Oct 4, 2017

... it is famous Polish actor Boguslaw Linda who dazzles with his hidden volcano of emotion.

| Sep 15, 2017

Afterimage becomes a fitting capstone to a remarkable career that spanned from the 1950s into the 21st Century.

| Aug 29, 2017

This passionate yet lucid study of a Polish artist/professor holding his ground during the early Communist era is a strong story from a cinematic master.

| Jul 26, 2017

A conventional film in its structure, analysis of characters and form, but invaluable epilogue to a fundamental career in the history of cinema. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jul 26, 2017

A fairly conventional biopic about a highly unconventional artist.

| Original Score: Not Recommended | Jul 24, 2017

Deliberately paced, bleak and a touch repetitive, Afterimages is a swan song from one of the greats, who, much like his subject, leaves viewers with a treatise on how to look at the world.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 15, 2017

Afterimage exudes an energy and clarity that elevate it above its familiar cold war setting, to serve as a worthy statement from a true master of the cinematic arts.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 2, 2017

It seems apropos that Afterimage is Wajda's last film as it makes him ever-present after death.

| Original Score: 5 | Jun 2, 2017

a dramatization of how even a very strong personality can be ground down between the stones of clashing political ideologies.

| Original Score: 7/10 | May 28, 2017

Wajda brings such a controlled fervor to this portrait because it's clear that, like Strzeminski, he identifies as a dissident in dangerous times.

| Original Score: A | May 26, 2017

It is an angry, vivid, passionate film, and cinema is worse off now that Wajda -- one of the truly towering greats of the form -- has passed away.

| May 26, 2017

"Afterimage" feels vividly connected to the Polish auteur's beginnings, yet also acts as the kind of haunting close that sums up a life.

| May 25, 2017

Afterimage is mounted in a classical, beautifully understated style that throughout conveys the assurance of a true master.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 19, 2017