Ashes and Diamonds (Polish:
Popiól i diament) is a 1958 Polish film directed by
Andrzej Wajda, based on the 1948
novel by Polish writer
Jerzy Andrzejewski. It completed Wajda's war films trilogy, following
A Generation (1954) and
Kanal (1956). The title comes from a 19th-century poem by
Cyprian Norwid and references the manner in which
diamonds are formed from heat and pressure acting upon
coal.