It was the first film made about the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, telling the story of a company of Home Army resistance fighters escaping the Nazi onslaught through the city's sewers. Kanał is the second film of Wajda's War Trilogy, preceded by "A Generation" and followed by Ashes and Diamonds.
The film was the winner of the Special Jury Award at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival (Wikipedia).
