Katyn Movie
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Storyline
TAGLINES PLOT SUMMARY
An examination of the Soviet slaughter of thousands of Polish officers and citizens in the Katyn forest in 1940.
| Andrzej Chyra | Lt. Jerzy |
| Maja Ostaszewska | Anna |
| Artur Zmijewski | Andrzej |
| Danuta Stenka | Róza |
| Jan Englert | General |
| Magdalena Cielecka | Agnieszka |
| Agnieszka Glinska | Irena |
| Pawel Malaszynski | Lt. Piotr |
| Maja Komorowska | Andrzej's Mother |
| Wladyslaw Kowalski | Professor Jan |
| Antoni Pawlicki | Tadeusz |
| Agnieszka Kawiorska | Ewa |
| Sergey Garmash | Maj. Popov |
| Joachim Paul Assböck | Obersturmbannführer Brunon Müller |
| Waldemar Barwinski | Polish Officer |
| Andrzej Wajda |
7.10 out of 10 (2883 votes)
Visitor Reviews
stripped of sentimentality, superb performances, unflinching direction
posted on 06 Aug 2009I should mention upfront, before this I had yet to see an Andrzej Wajda film, not without trying of course (started to watch Ashes and Diamonds, didn't get through it, yet). His films aren't too well known outside of the art-house circles, but his name is always known to those who peek into the new-waves of the 50s and 60s in Europe, and Wajda was one of the front-runners of the wave in Poland right before Polanski. It's then with hopefully the utmost admiration that I can recommend his latest film, Katyn, as a good one to start with. It doesn't mean necessarily that it's much "fun", but as far as films about the cover up of incredible atrocities go it is at the least fascinating and at best a stunning achievement of classical film-making used to present troubling events and the nature of the people who had to live with the atrocity.It's a film that has apparently already stirred up debate in its own country and abroad since it's not something new. The Katyn massacre of April 1940- which also took the like of Wajda's father- was immense and horrific on a scale that is one of those top five unforgivable things Stalin OK'd, but it's the fact that it was the Russians and not the Germans, whom the Russians pin the blame on, that keeps it controversial. But in Katyn's hands there's reason for a fuse being lit; this is not a work of someone wanting to sugarcoat or make something sentimental and easy. The film-making style may appeal to the masses- this is not something that is so arty that you couldn't take a reasonably open-minded average war-movie fan to- but it's the matter-of-factness of the plot details, the restraint and moving moments with the Polish actors, the precise lack of bad Hollywood influence, that imbues the story with such a passion and intensity.Basically, Wajda focuses on a few key people in the film, not the masterminds like Stalin or Hitler but those like the wife of Cavalry officer Andrzej, Anna, or his mother, or his fellow friend/Lieutenant Jerzy who was on the Katyn list of people to be executed but somehow got away from it, haunting him for the rest of his days, or a teacher who knows the truth but hides behind the Soviet motherland anyway. At first we see the events leading up to it from the soldier POV and of Anna from home, the simple nature of not knowing what's coming next or when someone will come home, and then when we know what is about to happen it skips over into the aftermath: the 1940s period, the immediate post-war and the late 1950s, how Poland was made occupied (a character says at one point that Poland will never be a free nation) and made to carry the burden of Katyn as something people talked about behind closed doors as one thing and out in public as another.Some scenes are given tremendous uplift by the acting. I've not seen any of these actors before but they're all wonderful. Watch the scene where Andrej's mother, who's husband professor was taken to a camp among other professors for supposedly damning the Nazis in speech, finds out that he has died while Anna reads the letter. So much is held back and yet we see so much in her eyes, how she holds her late husband's objects in her hands. Or the actor who plays Jerzy, Andrzej Chyra, who starts to crack while trying to put a face on what he knows happened at Katyn, in a big blow-up at a bar when he just explodes in front of everyone while an "official report" is read on the radio about Katyn. And basically any scene with the principal women characters, Anna, Rosa, they create these people in such raw terms as to support Wajda's need to strip away the melodrama.While Katyn here and there might have a rusty transition, or a couple of shots done in classic epic film style that don't quite work (a few crane shots are nifty, like when a bunch of soldiers sing in a bunker, but some could have been trimmed to equate with how the rest of the picture is shot which is more formal), it is an old veteran/master's showcase. Like Clint Eastwood or Akira Kurosawa, Wajda is at an age where he knows his craft so well that certain shots and images are classic in and of themselves, and are assured in creating the dark and nearly horror-movie tone in some instances. For the most part we're given the framework of a cover-up story, and for this Wajda directs well scenes of people being hidden or someone being forced to sign something full of lies or running fast away from soldiers.But then it comes to the last five to ten minutes, when Anna is given the diary that Andrzej wrote right before he was executed. This is one of those endings that will likely kick the crap out of you emotionally whatever your durability with grisly images. And wisely, music is used by Wajda in these murders in a meaningful way; what we hear is familiar, and it is since it's from the bathroom scene with the old woman from The Shining. It sends chills sharp and thick. And only at the end are we given a moment of release- a good long one over a black screen before the credits roll- with harrowing, emotional music. Katyn is made with the care of a superb filmmaker and of a soul who cares about how his country blunders miserably while doing something for his own lineage; only The Pianist tops it for decade's most personal WW2 drama.
No need for modern style: Wajda and Troell compared
posted on 13 Jul 2009Even Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of the Internet giant Google, has recently told Charlie Rose that he knows no better way how to learn about something than--brace yourself--reading a print book. (Take that, Kindle.) Audiophiles know that vinyl still sounds better than CD's, which sound better than MP3, though these new technologies have their place. Their introduction stimulates the economy; they work better in certain contexts; they inspire new interest in the material they bear. A new pen might have inspired one to write. A new computer may inspire one to do more research (or write). We don't have dip pens much any more, but they do still exist and there is very, very often a continuing use of so-called "outmoded" technologies. We still have fountain pens. We still need pencils.And so it is, very often, with styles. When new ones come along, they do not necessarily render earlier ones useless. Just as photography has not wiped out painting, non-objective painting has not wiped out magic realism. Rap hasn't eliminated pretty tunes. The same is true for movies. Old-fashioned ones still have their place. But with the arts, if you're going to be retro, you have to prove you had a good reason for it. Andrzej Wajda's 'Katyn' (2007) and Jan Troell's 'Everlasting Moments'(2008)--both of which were showing in American theaters in March 2009)--are test cases on this issue. Both are new movies that are traditional in their look, outlook, pace, and subject matter. 'Katyn' proves its worth more clearly, because it concerns an historical event that was hidden from view. The massacre of Polish officers by Russians in WWII and the attempt to blame it all on the Germans is history that needed to be told; it's the history of Wajda's own father, one of the slaughtered officers. Troell's film, concerning a working class Swedish family early in the last century, isn't quite as essential. It's Hallmark-sounding title is a hint that it's more nostalgia than history, and the story it tells, of a boorish husband and a wife struggling for independence, is in some ways only marginally memorable.Jan Troell's earlier period family sagas were perhaps richer and more involving than his new 'Everlasting Moments.' The interest of the film isn't so much in its small-town working class family, the seven kids, the big womanizing drunkard father. It's in the interface between the wife, Maria Larsson (Maria Heiskanen) and the film's style. Heiskanen's face, often and lovingly filmed in closeup, may feel for some of us more memorable than any of the faces in 'Katyn.' Troell's visuals consciously (and often remarkably) echo the subtle, even, naturally lighted tonalities of old glass plate negatives. (Early photographic equipment isn't as handy as today's, but that doesn't mean the photographs were inferior aesthetically.) Maria, wife of the cheery, powerful, but dangerous Sigge (Mikael Persbrandt), marries him owning a valuable camera she's won. When things get tough, she decides to sell it. This leads her to go to Sebastian Pedersen (Jesper Christensen), a photographer with a shop, who refuses to let her sell it and instead takes her under his wing and falls quietly in love with her. Throughout the film and Sigge's skullduggeries and the family's economic travails, Maria uses the camera with increasing artistry. Along with this, the sweet platonic love affair with Sebastian continues, and he woos her with equipment, paper, plates, and lessons in developing photographs. The film is a celebration of the addictiveness of photography and the magic that happens in the darkroom. (Alas for digital camera users, to have lost that alchemical mystery!) The relationship between Maria and Sebastian would be worth a subtler, richer film by itself. But Troell likes family sagas. And history and sociology call upon him to focus on Sigge and the seven children. Unfortunately, though, the story is narrated by eldest daughter Maja (Callin Ohrvall), adding logic to the focus on the mother, few of the other children are well individualized. The film is at cross purposes, a story about a woman artist and dedicated mother weighed down by lumbering family history.Despite the conventional, old fashioned film-making, the photographic story and the counterpoint in the film's own on screen images, Everlasting Moments justifies its existence. Not as historically essential as Wajda's 'Karyn,' for a lover of still photography (and darkroom magic) like myself, Troell's film, whether "essential" or not, winds up being at least as emotionally involving.'Katyn' is a film of slow, cumulative power. It presents the atrocity before, during, and after through families and individuals. It depicts how people risked torture or extermination to resist the Russian cover-up, and it ends with devastating simplicity by re-staging how the killing was done, very specifically what it looked and sounded like. Not much in 'Katyn' either in content or style seems distinctly 21st century. Except for one thing: this story hasn't been told before. Now it has been, and beautifully. And since it concerns events of sixty years ago, an old fashioned style is appropriate to it, as well as being a style of which Wajda is a master. The film may seem retro and boring to young viewers. Their cry, and others', sometimes is that WWII especially the Holocaust (which perhaps by association links in with other massacres of the War), has been "done to death." (This is mainly just because there have been four or five well-promoted films on the subject in recent months.) But that is really nonsense. Some subjects are never sufficiently examined and can never be overdone as long as an artist with a fresh angle "does" it.'Katyn' is old fashioned film-making. Coming at last to a long-endured injustice that is central to his own life because it took away his father, Wajda justifiably worked in a traditionally steady, slow accumulation of scenes. The result is moving and convincing. One can imagine no better or more appropriate methodology.
Ingeniously exposure of the darkest face of humanity.
posted on 05 Jul 2009This is not an average Oscar nominated Hollywood movie. There are few movies that are able to expose abyss of human nature, the darkest one in this case. It is not the most gruesome scenes, as one who knows the historical facts may expect to see, create emotional terror. Wajda masterfully leads the viewer deeply into reflections on how horrible humanity can become. There is little hope to change the course of the past, and yet when watching the film, one may catch himself hoping for a miracle of such a change. The journey through part of lives of those who were a part of this dark history is unforgettable. As one can describe the included in Bethoveen's 9th "Ode to Joy" as the aspiration of humanity to reaching the best of itself, this movie shows what is the opposite alternative...
A courageous film
posted on 17 Jun 2009Katyn by Andrzej WajdaA courageous film by a director who makes no concessions. Austerity instead of high-tech. What cineast of hallucinatory action, of nude and crude sensuality, of sequences full of monumental catastrophes would make a film in which one had scenes in a slower rhythm, without sex, with shadowy photography, with quiet music and giving ethical principles priority over the characters and their lives.One more reason, however, for us to thank Hollywood for nominating this film to run for the Oscar for the best foreign film.The Katyn massacre, perpetrated on Stalin's orders to eliminate the fine flower of the Polish intelligentsia, was left out of official Soviet history until the glasnost of Gorbatchov. There, in the Katyn forest and in other places as well, thousands of Polish officers were massacred. The Soviets tried to attribute it to the Nazis, but the truth eventually came to light. There is still, however, in Russia today, an attempt to deny the historical truth.I would like to make my own the reading of the film which focuses on this question of the distortion of historical fact by the apparatus of the state. The official lie imposed by the Soviet occupation of Poland brought torment to the lives of many of the families of the victims. Wajda's denunciation, along with the cry "Never kill again!" can also serve as an alert for our present world, in which so often a virtual reality becomes a substitute for the truth.The first group of interpretations belong to the women (wives, mothers, daughters) of the dead officers: how they coped, first with the hope of their return, and then with the definitive notice of their loss. They are marvellous interpretations, revealing the director's mastery and the talent of the actors. The portrayals demonstrate how, even when nothing else is left, there is still dignity. The wife of the dead General in Katyn refuses to endorse a declaration, prepared by the Nazis, denouncing the Soviets. The truth was known – why, then, should she play Hitler's propaganda game? He was just as much the enemy as Stalin was. Another woman wants to honour the memory of her brother by putting on the family tomb a stone with his name on it. Courageously she challenges the regime, but in vain - the stone is destroyed because on it the date of the officer's death indicates clearly who is to blame.Most of the male characters were simply victims of massacre; among those who had the opportunity of showing themselves authentically noble was a Russian officer who tried to save his Polish neighbour and her daughter. "I couldn't save my own family but I can help yours." And it is a Polish officer who has changed sides who represents, in the middle of so much heroism, the weakness of some. "It is necessary to survive," he declared.An entire population was suffocated by the Nazi and Soviet occupation. It is a shock to be shown in the film the cordial relations between the officials of the occupying powers, which would have been inconceivable in earlier years. Poland is partitioned (yet again!) by the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. In the Poland occupied by the Nazis all the professors of a university are summoned and arrested there and then (as a means of impeding the formation of future opposition). In the Poland occupied by the Soviets, the Polish officers are made prisoners of war (an efficient means of stopping them fighting for the independence of their country).Pawel Edelman's photography is simply a work of genius, a mixture of sombre realism and the surreal. The music of Krzystof Penderecki fits the narrative like a glove, producing just the right atmosphere at the right time. The dry narrative style has something in common with a documentary and calls to mind another of his films, Love in Germany. And there is no lack of the symbolism present in all his films, this time with a remarkably religious tone.In the development of the story there are moments taken from the films of that period – as, for example, the powerful exhumation of the dead, scenes which served Soviets and Nazis alike in placing the blame on each other.For me the strongest images are those of the young man who refused to declare that his father had not been killed in Katyn by the Soviets; of the two waves of fugitives running in opposite directions and meeting in the middle of a bridge – which way to run? of the general who tried to animate his men in the last Christmas of their lives and of the little girl awaiting the return of her father. This last touched me in a special way, because I too had waited for my father's return at the end of the war.Katyn is, without doubt, one of Andrzej Wajda's greatest films.Tomasz Lychowski Rio de Janeiro, Brazil February, 2008.Translated into English by Graham Connell
A Massacre by the Soviets
posted on 14 May 2009This courageous film directed with clarity and care by octogenarian Andrzej Wajda will reward viewers with a relatively unknown dark episode occurred during the occupation of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union at the dawn of WWII and its aftermath under the communist regime.Without histrionics or gratuitous gore, the film presents a somber portrait of a divided occupied Poland, part of the country under the Germans and the other under the Soviets. The story focuses on the mothers and wives of military officers, professors, and other professionals sent to camps. Once the war is over, the massacre committed by the Soviets at the Katyn forest in Russia is covered-up by the communist regime that punishes to all those who refuse to accept its lies.Andrzej Wajda, whose own military officer father was a murdered at Katyn, presents a multi-faceted scenario of great sorrow, but never mawkish, in a meticulously reconstructed war-torn Poland. Despair, hope, inhumanity, compassion, self-betrayal, and dignity are embodied by the many characters who inter-relate in the story, all of them affected in one way or another by the Katyn massacre. This is the work of an old master, a complex canvass directed with a sure hand, allowing the actors to embody their characters in brief nuanced performances - a lucid poignant masterpiece.A must-see for all those who are interested in occupation of Poland and subsequent Soviet satellite regime after WWII.
Deserves to be seen by a much wider audience
posted on 06 May 2009Everyone in Poland has heard of the Katyn massacre but I've been surprised and saddened at how few people in Britain know of the atrocity. In the early part of the Second World War, more than 4,000 Polish soldiers were executed in the Katyn forest near Smolensk in western Russia. This was part of an organised effort to eradicate the military, political and intellectual leadership of Poland and a series of executions in various other locations removed some 22,000 Poles from their loved ones and their nation.So, who did this? The Germans claimed to have uncovered the bodies in 1943 and blamed the Soviets in an effort to embarrass and divide the Allies. The Soviet Union categorically denied the crime at the time and for decades afterwards, only in 1990 admitting what the Poles and any independent assessor of the evidence knew: Stalin's NKVD perpetrated the horror on his express command.The incident has now been made into a major Polish film by the acclaimed Polish director Andrzej Wajda whose own father was killed at Katyn and who is now in his 80s. The work was premiered at the Berlin film festival in 2007; it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2008; and it finally arrived in Britain in a few cinemas in the summer of 2009. It is an exceptional work - both powerful and moving - that deserves a much larger audience.Starting in 1939 with the simultaneous invasion of Poland by the Nazis and the Soviets, it takes us in several jumps to the immediate post-war period and underlines that the shame of Katyn was not just the deaths of the 22,000 in 1940 but the denial of the truth by so many people for so many years afterwards. Through the device of a prolonged flashback, the film concludes with a return to Katyn with close-up scenes of the sheer brutality of what was unquestionably a war crime.The film is based on a novel by Andrzej Mularczyk and revolves around a number of fictional families with a fair bit of location work in Krakow, a city centre that looks today much like it did in the 1940s and which I have visited. The photography and acting are both excellent and selective use of wartime film footage simply adds to the sense of verisimilitude.Footnote: To my utter astonishment, at the Renoir cinema in central London where I saw the film, as I descended the stairs to the screen, I was given a leaflet by a representation of something called The Stalin Society which insisted that the massacre was carried out by the Germans in 1943 and that Wajda's film is simply part of a sustained attempt to discredit communism at a time of economic crisis when so many people would see it as the obvious alternative to capitalism.
Perhaps good for a TV mini-series, but not for the big screen
posted on 22 Apr 2009Oh what a disappointment this movie is. I can't believe it was directed by Wajda. There's practically no plot and 90% of the movie consists of various people walking in and out of the screen, weakly trying to interact with each other while talking about the Katyn massacre. The most interesting part comes right at the end, but by that time I simply stopped caring while trying to suppress my yawns.Almost the entire movie is filmed with a hand-held camera, which is supposed to convey the feeling of "personal immediacy" but there's nothing personal or immediate about most of the movie. Instead, the constant jerking of the camera made me seasick. To be fair, there are some great shots too (no pun intended), but nothing that makes you go "Wow!".If you're not familiar with the Katyn massacre, the movie will leave you scratching your head. If you are familiar, you'll be scratching your head too, although maybe for different reasons. Basically, the movie states and restates over and over again that it was the Soviets who murdered thousands of Polish soldiers in 1940. This point is hammered repeatedly as though someone in the audience needed to be convinced of this basic historical fact. However, the movie never tries to explain as to WHY they were killed. After all, tens of thousands of Polish soldiers in the other Soviet POW camps were not harmed and were released in 1941. It is also never explained adequately HOW MANY people perished, although the figure 20,000 is thrown in a couple of times.The acting is adequate with only Komorowska (old woman) and Chyra (Lt. Jerzy) giving noticeable performances, but they get to act for maybe 10-15 minutes in total. Certainly not enough to carry the whole movie. Many other actors seem to have been chosen more for their matinée looks rather than their acting abilities, but I won't mention their names. Suffice to say that they are definitely NOT the Oscar material, so any claims that this movie was "robbed" of the Academy Award are simply laughable.The tone of movie is wrong as well. On one hand it tries to be an accurate historical drama, on the other it resorts to cheap anti-Soviet propaganda such as showing a Russian soldier tear up the Polish flag and using it to clean his boots. Then there are some puzzling scenes which have absolutely no bearing on the plot, such as a couple climbing on a roof or the liquidation of the Krakow University.There are many missed opportunities to make this movie more interesting, such as adding a political angle to the story, or showing the German discovery of the graves, or even portraying Anna's trip from the Soviet occupied part to the German occupied Krakow. All of these aspects could have been the major part of the movie, but instead they're reduced to a couple of minutes. In the end, we get a collection of loosely fitting, confusing, boring scenes about the reaction of Poles to one of their greatest tragedies of WWII. Not very compelling and not worthy of Wajda at all.
Feel nothing...
posted on 29 Mar 2009This movie is a shame especially considering Andrzej Wajda is not an amateur, but professional director. However this movie fails to deliver anything you could expect.First of all -- I am Polish, so I can tell all the background story, because I read books. But how can you tell there is even a war from this movie -- bunch of people are going back and forth, some soldiers are shouting... This is really The Second World War or soldiers are on vacations?Acting and dialogs -- poor, miserably poor. A.Żmijewski, D.Stenka, M.Komorowska, W.Kowalski, A.Chyra fit in their roles, the rest of (Polish) cast is out of the place (most notably M.Ostaszewska, one of the leading characters, what an unfortunate choice). 99% of the dialogs are not spoken, they are just put there, actors had difficulties to perform and it is no surprise considering what odd things they had to say.And this leads us to the most disappointing issue -- you can't feel it. Everything is so theatrical, artificial. There is no real life, there is no feeling in it. There are a lot of original footage from the WWII and, guess what, the material is much more powerful, dramatic, than what A.Wajda did.I can see only one positive -- despite historical mistakes (like acronym ZSRR; it was made for post-1945 propaganda purposes, to please Polish that ZSRS was gone, and now there was ZSRR, but in 1940 there was no ZSRR!), luckily it is undoubtedly shown killing in Katyn was done by Soviets (yes, it is a fact, not some controversial gossip). Great, two hours for 5-10 minutes scene.Anyway -- time and potential wasted. This is tragedy of epic proportions, will to fight in 1939 (barely shown), not declaring war against Soviet Union by Polish authorities (sic! not shown here), imprisonment of soldiers shortly after, living in the outrageous conditions (not shown here), hope and fear what will come next (barely shown) , and then... extermination. Hand to hand with Germans -- Soviets were exterminating Polish nation, aimed at people who constituted the backbone of Poland. Unfortunately they succeed, and the results are still visible to this very day.
awful propaganda
posted on 23 Mar 2009AWFUL MOVIE. It reminds that the story is written by the people who have the power. lies, lies, lies. Same Gebels admitted in his pages that was an old classic propaganda. There are a lot of elements: 1) the victims had documents of the October 1941. No one soviet soldier was in Poland this date. (they had left months before) 2)the bullets in the victims were German.... 3)the "document" that "prove" that "soviets are guilty" are fake, because they firm it the members of the Political Office, whom the 2 were absent that period. Also, the "document"has date 1940 and writes "Comunist Party of Soviet Union". Since 1952 the name of the party was "russian party of Bolsheviks". The liars should know that this name was validate from the 1952 and then!!! THEY WERE SEEING THE FUTURE AND THEY WERE KNOWING THAT THE COMUNIST PARTY WOULD CHANGE ITS NAME 12 YEARS LATER?
The Katyn tragedy deserves a better cinematic treatment
posted on 15 Mar 2009First of all, let me say that I am in no way denying the importance of the subject - quite the opposite. I am Polish and I have been aware of the Katyn massacre for quite a long time (in fact, two of my family members died there), so I was looking forward to this film. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.I think the main problem lies with the script, which encompasses too many subplots and characters, none of which are properly developed. The characters are painfully one-dimensional; their stories are intertwined, but lack overall meaning. In my opinion the cast doesn't really have a chance to show their ability. The exception is Andrzej Chyra, portraying Jerzy - the only interesting character. I wish the story was more focused on him.As a result, the film lacks emotion. Before seeing it I thought I would be moved, if only for sentimental reasons - but in fact I was watching it with an odd sense of detachment throughout, except for the final execution scene. It is done well and its placing is interesting and provides a climactic ending, although the idea of the Lord's Prayer being recited in unison by the executed officers seems a bit far-fetched.To conclude, I suppose the film may have some educational value for those who are not familiar with the portrayed historical events, but in my opinion it fails as a work of cinema.
Katyn deserves a worldwide audience
posted on 28 Jan 2009I'm an Englishman living in Poland, since 2002 until this review in 2008.I've had six years in this very friendly country, and I have heard many accounts of what happened at Katyn from those families who lost their grandfathers/fathers.This film deserves to be seen. The last 15 minutes are truly shocking, but the true Polish spirit is indomintable - they never give in - through Katyn - through Auschwitz - through hundreds years of wars - the Polish spirit and strength has survived, and will always survive.Andrej Wajda is Poland's most famous film director, his father was murdered in Katyn, after many acclaimed films he won an "honary" Oscar for his contribution to world cinema.On receiving his Oscar he said:Ladies and Gentlemen,I will speak in Polish because I want to say what I think and feel and I always thought and felt in Polish.I accept this great honor not as a personal tribute, but as a tribute to all of Polish cinema.The subject of many of our films was the war, the atrocities of Nazism and the tragedies brought by communism.This is why today I thank the American friends of Poland and my compatriots for helping my country rejoin the family of democratic nations, rejoin the Western civilizations, its institutions and security structures.My fervent hope is that the only flames people will encounter will be the great passions of the heart-love, gratitude and solidarity.
You are the same as they are. You think differently, but you do the same.
posted on 14 Jan 2009I thought the Oscar winner for best Foreign Film in 2007, The Counterfeiters, was excellent. While this was also a compelling film, I agree that the right decision was made.One would not be surprised that the governments involved would rather not have to admit that this happened. Katyn, a forest outside Krakow, and the site where somewhere between 12,000 and 20,000 Polish military officers were summarily executed in 1940, by the Soviet occupiers of eastern Poland, on the personal orders of Joe Stalin.Since Poland was a Communist state after the war, the event had to be moved to 1941 so the Germans could be blamed. It wasn't military professionals that Stalin killed, but middle class professionals, who were removed to establish a new Soviet class.The film focuses mostly on the women left behind. We see Andrzej (Artur Zmijewski) and Jerzy (Andrzej Chyra) in the beginning, but it is Andrzej/s wife Anna (Maja Ostaszewska) and their daughter that is the main focus.It is a hard film, but one that needed to be told.
Silent tragedy
posted on 08 Jan 2009A well done picture speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves and would be gladly considered never existing by some.Although it's difficult to credibly and adequately convey the horror of such a murder which became a life tragedy for many Polish families and undoubtedly affected the way Poland looked after the war I think the director made a good job. Especially so, that it happened to be his personal tragedy as well.Despite that the movie is well-balanced with emotions and atmosphere. Modest colors and anxious music by Penderecki emphasize the horror of those who were waiting. Short cuts of brutal scenes of murder leave speechless. No additional comment is needed.
more a testimony than an art film
posted on 23 Dec 2008The opening and the ending scenes in this film will be hard to forget for anybody who sees them. The opening happens on a bridge someplace in Poland in September 1939. Refugees run on the bridge from both sizes - on one side running of the Nazis, on the other side from the Soviets. They have no place to run, no place to hide. A strong metaphor for a nation abandoned by history.Then comes the movie, a movie that Wajda wanted to make for decades about the massacre of thousands of Polish officers taken prisoners by the Russians in the first month of WWII - one of the most controversial moments and abject crimes in a war that was full of abject crimes. While the message is strong and crisp, the feeling one gets is that an even better film was missed. While the stories of the families trying to find the truth about the prisoners, then fighting for the truth not to be buried or used as propaganda by the two dictatorships that occupied Poland are in the center of the film, the description is too direct. It looks like Wajda who is certainly a great director wanted on purpose to make a very straight indictment in this film. He was more interested in the testimony than in art.The final scene brings to screen the massacre itself. Although quite graphical in nature, it is moving and unforgettable. Then, for many moments the screen turns to black before credits run. The screen may have become dark, but the memory lives and will live forever for those who saw this movie.
Excellent film on a frequently forgotten part of WW2 history
posted on 17 Dec 2008This film depicts one of the most shameful betrayals of WW2 by the western allies on Poland, the very country that they went to war for. For those who may not know, Katyn was the massacre of thousands of Polish military officers by the Soviets, occurring around the same time as the Battle of Britain. The Germans found the graves when they invaded Russia, at Nuremburg the crime was listed as a German one, the Poles then spent 45 years under communism knowing who did it and not being able to say, the Russians finally admitted guilt in the early 90s, and the director Wajda finally was able to make this film free from censorship 67 years after the event.It is a very well made film, not glamorous, just realistic and trying to show the effect of Katyn on those involved and those left behind. Without a knowledge or insight into Polish history, culture, and religion, I can see that a first time viewer might not receive the film well. Although I was upset that it did not win an Oscar, I don't think it was made for that purpose, and that I found it to be a film about the Polish for the Polish, not worrying what those outside the country might think.Since a child, I have been interested in WW2 history and quite predictably, watched many films on the subject. I would put this film in the same group of excellent films such as Schindler's List and The Pianist, different subject matter, but still realistic in it's recall of events. Parts of it are disturbing to watch, but I would consider these are required to convey the horror of the situation and the subsequent cover-up.I do not think the impact or quality of the film is reduced in anyway by the Polish/Russian/German only dialogue, as it gives a more real feel to the events. I wished more films were recorded in the language of the countries portrayed, afterall, not all soldiers spoke with a cockney accent or straight out of Brooklyn! Many of the locations are also genuine and add to the atmosphere.If you are not connected to Poland in anyway, I would recommend reading up on the subject before watching as it will mean you can sit and watch the film as it is and not have to question what is going on.
A Story That Needs to Be Told
posted on 01 Dec 2008At the outset of World War II, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a Non-Aggression Pact, whereby they agreed to partition Poland. Germany invaded first, then the Soviets. This movie deals with the horrible consequences.About 12,000 Polish army officers were taken into Soviet custody, and massacred at the Katyn Forest. These were mostly reservists. In civilian life, they were educated, middle-class, professional people. To the Communists, that made them potentially dangerous--the kind that they usually eliminated after taking power.This is a true story, a great tragedy seldom mentioned here in the US, but one that is well-known in Eastern Europe. This movie belongs in the same category as The Killing Fields, or Schindler's List. We must never forget the victims of Katyn.
Post Mortem Gloria et Lux Aeterna Victis
posted on 14 Oct 2008Are there words to express suffering, injustice, hypocrisy of war? May empathy ease the pain of those who lost hope for a better world? There are many movies on WWII that appear to be more or less captivating, touching as well as educational. And, in this respect, we could easily rate this movie in that way if we treat KATYN as yet another film on WWII. However, the case here is different, more to say exceptionally unique.Andrzej Wajda, after 18 years since the downfall of communist regime, fulfills the duty he feels to his parents and all Polish Patriots and makes a film on the theme that, not long ago, was not only forbidden to discuss in theater or cinema, but in all public places, the Truth that was prohibited and highly unwelcome, the Truth about the slaughter of more than 20,000 Polish best officers committed by Soviet communists in the forests of Katyn. Andrzej Wajda based his film on Andrzej Mularczyk's story POST MORTEM and consulted great Katyn witnesses, including recently deceased Priest Zdzislaw Peszkowski (1918-2007). If the film is good or weak belongs to the opinions of particular viewers. But lots of people on the premiere day stated that it's a historic work. Why? KATYN, though a movie, is a wonderful documentary that supplies the viewer with TRUTHFUL information on what really happened in 1940, why it happened and who did this (facts that were most distorted in many historical books and many other sources for years). Here, the truth is more important than anything else. The movie contains archive footage, pictures and terrific narrator. These moments are well balanced and, though appearing several times, do not disturb anything but make for all the rest. And what is the rest? The rest contains particularly vivid plots of families, their dreams, their fear, husbands/sons' honor, wives' love and care, and foremost young officers' martyrdom. The story of Andrzej (Artur Zmijewski) is exceptionally moving. His situation seems to represent the Poland of that time: torn between two oppressors, two worlds: Nazi Germany who attacked it on September, the 1st, 1939 and communist Russia who attacked it from the east 17 days later. As a victim of Katyn massacre, Andrzej appears to tell us a tragic story of separation, extreme suffering, but hope, to the very last day, the hope for survival. His notebook seems to tell us: "No, I will live, they're taking us somewhere but I'll surely see my beloved woman, my loving mum and my sweet daughter." The tragic though full of hope Christmas Eve also depicts that attitude. Other characters, including Jerzy (Andrzej Chyra), Andrzej's wife Anna (Maja Ostaszewska), General's wife (Danuta Stenka) constitute a brilliant insight into various, usually helpless, reactions towards evil, hypocrisy, injustice, cruelty and neutrality.These stories are executed in an accurate and universal way. In such historic but tragic content, there is usually a tendency to become either too preachy or too emotional, which, to some extend, jerk the tears from viewers' eyes by force. Wajda does not do anything of these. He remains with the people, with humanity in general, does not give the final answer to anything. He seems to be with all of us and appears to depict a quest for truth, quest for justice and for humanity. Besides, he uses lots of very accurate symbols. The unforgettable and probably most thought provoking symbol is when Andrzej's wife looks for her husband and uncovers the bodies of soldiers. Among them, she occurs to uncover the figure of Christ taken from the Cross in church and laid among the deceased. Haven't we killed God by losing respect for life? Another brilliant symbol is when Russian soldiers tear the Polish flag into two parts, hanging the red part again as the Russian flag and using the white part as a foot dressing.Except for the factors described above, KATYN is also a wonderful piece of work as a film. Very good cinematography, moody atmosphere, flawless performances. Artur Zmijewski does a brilliant job as Andrzej, Maja Ostaszewska is genuine as his wife and heroic, in a sense, Maja Komorowska is again a real artist in her job giving a real portrayal of the caring and then mourning mother. And Andrzej Chyra as Jerzy whose conscience and solidarity do not allow him to go on...magnificent!But at the end I must tell you that it was not easy for me to write this review. The stories like this one do not lead to wordy comments, much noise, opinions, praise or criticism. They call for silence, the sacred silence that lets us honor those who died in such inhumane way. This silence shall constitute a significant message for today's generation, shall help us see deeper and give us faith to believe that their lives did not end in the soil. Therefore, though difficult, I consider KATYN one of the most important movies I have seen in my life.Yes, dear young Patriot, hold Your Rosary high. The world will probably call your act "the act of despair". Yet, the world is befriended with lie and you are now victorious in a world of Glory and Eternal Light where there is no room for "lie". R.I.P.
Hidden Genocide
posted on 24 Sep 2008On 17 September 1939, a group of Polish officers and soldiers are imprisoned by the Soviet Army on the border of Poland. Anna (Maja Ostaszewska) and her daughter Nika (Wiktoria Gsiewska) travel from Krakow to meet her husband and officer Andrzej (Artur Zmijewski) and they try to convince him to leave the soldiers and escape back home. However, Andrzej refuses to leave the troop and is deported to USSR. Later the Soviet tells that the Polish officers had been massacred by the Germans in the Katyn Forest with a shot on the back of the neck. However Anna retrieves Andrzej's diary and discloses that the soldiers had been actually murdered by the Soviet Army. "Katyn" discloses a hidden genocide committed by the Stalinism through a group of civilian that lost a beloved husband, father or son. The importance of this movie is to tell the world this despicable massacre in World War II and the life in occupied Poland, and probably the Polish viewers will enjoy it much more than me since it is part of their history. I like the work of Andrzej Wajda, but in "Katyn" his direction seems to be lost with the confused screenplay that does not develop well several secondary characters and situations. Further, there is no explanation if there was an investigation of this bloodshed; if the criminals have been identified; if there was any consequence to the leaders. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Katyn"
"The Soviet Red Army is your ONLY friend"
posted on 20 Sep 2008KATYN is one of the most powerful World War II films I have ever seen and from the first frame of Poles fleeing from the Germans to the rear and the Russians in the front, an audience immediately feels the horror and claustrophobia of attempting to flee from the enemy, but with a sense of absolutely no where to run. The cast is simply superb, the story one of Polish Officers who meet their fate at the hands of the enemy, but with a sense of pride in themselves and their families, and the men and women who struggled to deal with both the Germans and the Russians and survive, is one written in the annals of history, but now with the truth of the slaughter finally brought to light. The final scenes in KATYN sent me from the theater with a sense of wanting to get a deep breath of air in my lungs, and to attempt to digest the horror I had just seen on the screen. KATYN deserves the Oscar and it is a film that will haunt you forever.
Beautiful and honest.
posted on 20 Aug 2009I've seen this movie about two month ago. The information that it's one of the nominees for Oscars '08 was a huge gladness for me but not a surprise, just like for millions of people in Poland. I knew from the first place that somebody out there in Hollywood will notice the beauty of clearness and disarming honesty of Katyń. That's not the movie that you go to just in order to kill some time and relax. You have to be aware of the historical facts if you want to understand Katyń in the best way. Wajda did a great job, along with really good actors that really felt their roles. World needed the movie that tells the whole story about what happened in Katyn in 1940. Finally, it got it.