Polish Film School
In the 1950s, some of the well-known films with artistic sensibilities include "La Strada" (1954), a film about a young woman who is forced to go to work for a cruel and inhumane circus performer to support her family, and eventually comes to terms with her situation; Carl Theodor Dreyer's "Ordet" (1955), centering on a family with a lack of faith, but with a son who believes that he is Jesus Christ and convinced that he is capable of performing miracles; Federico Fellini's "Nights of Cabiria" (1957), which deals with a prostitute's failed attempts to find love, her suffering and rejection; "Wild Strawberries" (1957), by Ingmar Bergman, whose narrative concerns an elderly medical doctor, who is also a professor, whose nightmares lead him to re-evaluate his life; and "The 400 Blows" (1959) by François Truffaut, whose main character is a young man trying to come of age despite abuse from his parents, schoolteachers, and society. In Poland, the Khrushchev Thaw permitted some relaxation of the regime's cultural policies, and productions such as "A Generation", "Kanal", "Ashes and Diamonds", "Lotna" (1954–1959), all directed by Andrzej Wajda, showed the Polish Film School style.