ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

ANDRZEJ WAJDA has been making films for sixty years. His body of work captures the heart and soul of Poland, and includes such landmarks as Ashes and Diamonds, Man of Iron and Danton. His latest film, Katyn, is a heartfelt account of a World War Two massacre that remains one of the most notorious events of the 20th century.

Wajda's father was one of those killed during the Katyn massacre and the film is a history lesson with a very personal feel. Events are seen through the lives of wives, mothers and sisters left clinging to hope of a miracle as the fate of their loved ones remained a mystery.

The film begins in September 1939. Cavalry captain Andrzej (Artur Zmijewski) is among thousands of Polish officers captured by the Soviets. His wife Anna (Maja Ostaszewska) eventually returns to the family home in Krakow and discovers that her father-in-law is now a prisoner at Sachsenhausen.

In the Spring of 1940 almost 15,000 Polish officers are executed and buried in a mass grave at Katyn Forest. It is 1943 before the Nazi regime announces the list of the exhumed victims of the massacre. Andrzej's name is not on the list and Anna remains convinced that he may be still alive.

Discovering the truth of what happened becomes impossible in the aftermath of the War as the Soviet regime demands that the massacre is attributed to the Nazis.

Truth is one of the main casualties of war in Katyn, a film reminiscent of The Lives of Others in the way it combines a compelling human story within the broader picture of a country deprived of justice and liberty. It is a restrained, moving piece of old school European cinema.

Selected national release

Director: Andrzej Wajda
Cast: Artur Zmijewski, Maja Ostaszewska, Andrzej Chyra, Danuta Stenka
Screenwriter: Andrzej Wajda, Wladyslaw Pasikowski, Przemyslaw Nowaskowski
Certificate: 15
Running time: 118 mins
Country: Poland
Year: 2007

© Allan Hunter, 2009

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