THIS WEEKEND AT AFI FESTIVAL

F ollowing are The Times’ recommendations for this weekend’s schedule of the American Film Institute Los Angeles International Film Festival, with commentary by the film reviewing staff. Information: (213) 466-1767.

SUNDAY

Highly recommended:

“KORCZAK”(Poland; Andrzej Wajda; Music Hall, 8:45 p.m.). Wajda’s devastating portrayal of Janusz Korczak, the famous author/psychologist who ran the Warsaw Ghetto’s orphanage and who, rather than leave his 200 children, accompanied them to Treblinka. Using the stark, black-and-white cinematography of his great ‘50s “Generation” trilogy, Wajda steeps us in the sights and sounds of paranoia and death’s way-station. Korczak, played brilliantly by Wojtech Pszoniak, becomes a genuine hero: a sublime exponent of compassion and duty. Wajda claims this film will be his last. If so, it’s a fitting valedictory. He has never made a better one.

(Michael Wilmington)