KATYN
katyn
A monument to one of the darkest secrets of the Soviet era.
For filmmaker Andrzej Wajda, painful events from his own past have been resurrected in Katyn. The film dramatises one of the last major acknowledged crimes of World War II, where up to 20,000 Polish officers died at the hands of Joseph Stalin's secret police. Wadja's father was one of them.
Highly moving in content, Wadja still manages to adroitly unfurl events like a master class, rather than steep his story with sentimentality and exaggerated emotion. This is powerful stuff, and it clearly touched the hearts of the Polish people, taking a sizeable US$14 million at the box office.
Nominated for an Oscar in this year's best foreign language category.
D Andrzej Wajda P Michal Kwiecinski S Andrzej Wajda, Wladyslaw Pasikowski, Przemyslaw Nowakowski
WS TVP SA L Polish, German, Russian w/English subtitles TD 35mm/2007/117mins