Walesa, half- peasant, half- workman who became a king; not because he grew above his country roots, but because he stayed close to them. That was the foundation of his enormous success, but also of his spectacular failures. He managed to combine the sober voice of reason with unparalleled vulgarity: the former elevated him above the rest, the latter made it hard to believe.

When Lech Walesa turned into a strike leader in the shipyards of Gdansk (Poland) in 1980, 10 million people soon joined him. This paved the way to the first peaceful overthrow of a Communist regime in our contemporary history. The young electrician proved to be a creator of history and stayed in this role from then on. During his career, Lech Walesa experienced it all, from adoration to humiliation and hatred but he never stopped to impress folks with his sharp judgments and apt and often witty one-liners. He was hitting the right notes, at the right time.

He could make the crowd dance to any of his unpredictable tunes. He could use with no hesitation a joke, an argument, some pathos or a little lie. And the masses followed him with no questions asked, as if hypnotized.

First, I admired him. Then I laughed at him. Then I was ashamed of him. Now I have come to understand it all, I appreciate and I am proud that we have him says director Andrzej Fidyk.

His sense of “Walesa by Walesa” is simple: help him make a documentary on himself. During long conversations, he’ll be giving specific instructions: what elements and from which angle should be contained in a movie on Lech Walesa. For what he should be praised, which subjects should not be talked about, and what about him might be criticized.