Andrzej WajdaPoland’s veteran film director Andrzej Wajda has received the annual award of the Russian Federation for services in the struggle for human rights. It is accompanied by a cash prize of about 200, 000 dollars.
The decision to honour Wajda comes after the recent presentation on Russia’s state television of his film Katyń about the massacre of Polish officers by Stalin’s NKVD police in 1940. Three years ago the film was not approved for distribution in Russia. The situation changed after the crash of the Polish presidential plane in Russia two months ago.
The award is presented annually on 12 June, the Russian Federation’s most important state holiday. Past recipients of the award include French president Jacques Chirac (2007), the writer Aleksandr Solzenitsyn (2006) and the Patriarch Alexey II (2005). (mk)