SAMSON (SAMPSON) Tribute to Andrzej Wajda: 40 Years of Filmmaking

Wajda’s Samson is a transposition of the Biblical story of the muted prisoner who, after suffering temptation, brings death gloriously upon himself and his captors. Samson (played with a spare, haunting authority by the French actor, Serge Moulin) is in the filmmaker’s terms a shy young Jew who is taunted for the crime of being alive by his companions at university and then betrayed by acquaintances The wide screen images erupt imaginatively and the film’s most distinguished passages are those in which the dialologue is subdued and one is stimulated by the harsh chords of Tadeusz Baird’s music to share the tribulation of Samson and slowly to become aware of his destiny. Samson’s symbolism – the cross of David, the troupe of players representing Death and teh Devil, who lead Samson to the gates of the Ghetto – reinforce the film’s allegorical fabric.