Andrzej Wajda’s decision to end his iconic Man of Marble (1977) in the Baltic port city of Gdańsk was propitious because this was the very place where Solidarity later emerged. Man of Iron is a documentary/fiction hybrid about its formation. One of Wajda’s boldest experiments, the film’s style and tone developed in tandem with the events of August 1980. Never oblivious to the ease with which footage can be misappropriated, Wajda was also wise enough to let the documentary side take over in the extraordinary final sequences.