This film from the famed Polish director Andrzej Wajda was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language movie. I can see why--it was very well made. However, I must warn you, that although the film is exceptionally well done and important, it is also among the most brutal I've seen in a long time--with lots of closeup shots of Polish soldiers getting executed in the most graphic way possible.
"Katyn" begins during the invasion of Poland in September, 1939. Although folks outside Poland today now about the Germans invading, a lot of films and history books fail to discuss that the Soviets did the same--crashing in this relatively defenseless nation in a power grab. In the process, they rounded up all the Polish officers--sending them off to prisoner of war camps and, ultimately, to their deaths inside the USSR at a place called Katyn Forest (hence the name of the film).
Much of the film is set after the massacre and has to do with the Soviet attempt to whitewash the incident by blaming the Germans. However, a few people in this film refuse to accept the party line--much to their regret because the Soviets intended to sell this lie no matter who they had to hurt to get this false message across.
Because it is so important to set the record straight historically speaking, I am very glad that "Katyn" was made. Poles and non-Poles need to face facts and accept reality. But, as I said above, this exceptionally well made film ALSO tells the story in all its brutality--with lots and lots of closeups of Polish officers having their brains blown out by Soviet criminals (I am not sure if they technically were soldiers or NKVD or KGB, but this clearly is a crime against humanity--so I'll stick with the word 'criminal'). Worth seeing but a film to keep from your children and the easily disturbed.
Plot summary
When the Soviet Union on 17 September 1939 invades Poland, Anna Aleksandrowna leaves her home in Krakow to search for her husband, the Polish captain Andrzej. She finds him together with other officers captured by the Red Army, but some minutes later he is pushed into a train, which will take all the Polish officers to a prison camp in Kozelsk in Russia. Anna and her daughter Nika is now stuck in the Soviet occupied zone, unable to go back to Krakow in the German zone, not until a brave Russian captain helps them to flee. 3 April 1940 Andrzej is transported from the prison camp in Kozelsk to the Katyn Forest, where thousands of Polish officers are killed. In 1943 the Germans capture this area and find the mass graves. 13 April 1943 they start announcing the names of the identified corpses through loudspeakers in Krakow. Anna is happy that Andrzej is not in any of the Katyn lists, which gives her some hope. 18 January 1945 the Red Army liberates Krakow from the Nazis. The Russians start blaming the Katyn Massacre on the Germans, proclaiming that it happened in 1941 instead of 1940. Everybody knows that this isn't true, but those who refuse to accept the Soviet version are imprisoned or killed by the Red Army.
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An important story but exceptionally hard to watch and brutal.
sincere history telling
It's Sept 1939. Anna and her daughter Nika are part of the stream of humanity heading east escaping the Nazis. They run into refugees heading west escaping the Soviets. Anna's husband Andrzej is a cavalry captain captured by the Soviets. He is one of 20k Polish officers held as POWs. His father is an university professor in Nazi-occupied Krakau. The teachers are all taken to concentration camps. Anna struggles to return to Krakau. Lt. Jerzy gives his sweater to Andrzej. As the war goes on, both the Nazis and the Soviets blame the other for the Katyn massacre of the Polish officers. The families of these men struggle to find the truth and conform to the various government officials during and after the war.
It's always important to correct a history that has been distorted by propaganda for so long. This does it sincerely and that is noteworthy. It does cover a lot of ground during and after the war. It's probably important to see the official account changing from one dictatorial government to the next. When the movie moves away from Anna, it does loses the thread of the story telling. While it's a sincere telling, the story does get muddled going between the various characters.
Hidden Genocide
On 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"