Andrzej Wajda’s celebrated 1979 film The Conductor is a powerful story of artistic passion, ambition, jealousy and the price of art. At its center is a world-famous Polish conductor returning from the United States to his homeland, where his presence awakens old tensions and contributes to a crisis in the marriage of a young couple.

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 inspired acclaimed Polish cellist and composer Michał Pepol to create a completely new score for Wajda’s classic. Written to mark the centenary of the director’s birth, the composition enters into a dialogue with Beethoven and Wajda’s images, combining classical sensitivity with a contemporary musical language.

The score will be performed live by Pepol & The People, a young string ensemble founded by Michał Pepol, with Karolina Wiśniewska and Mikołaj Marciniak on violin and Michał Moiraliotis on viola.