The Birch Wood is an intimate adaptation of a 1932 short story by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. Iwaszkiewicz's stories are best known for their Chekhovian realism, but director Andrzej Wajda took the opportunity to rework a series of motifs from the paintings of the preeminent Polish Symbolist Jacek Malczewski. By combining elegant camera movements with surprising uses of the zoom lens, Wajda seamlessly oscillates between these two modes, and transforms this depiction of early twentieth century country life into a moving exploration of human transience.