Polish strike film wins at Cannes

Polish director Andrzej Wajda's "Man of Iron" won the 1981 Golden Palm, the highest award of the Cannes Film Festival. The film, which traces the strikes in Poland's Baltic ports last summer, had its world premiere here Sunday. It has not been screened publicly in Poland.

The film is a sequel to one of Wajda's most internationally acclaimed films, "Man of Marble," about the fall from grace of an exemplary worker during the Stalinist period of postwar Poland. The hero of "Man of Iron" is also a young worker -- the son of the hero of the previous film.

The leader of Poland's Solidarity trade union, Lech Walesa, appears in the new film, both in documentary footage and in some fictitious scenes which he agreed to play.

The runner-up prize, the Jury Award, went to "Light-Years Away," directed by Swiss Alain Tanner.

The best-actor prize was awarded to Italian Ugo Tognazzi for his part in Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man."

Best-actress award went to Isabelle Adjani of France for two roles, one in the British entry "Quartet" and the other in "Possession," directed by Polish director Andrzej Zul awski.