Katyn ( Post mortem. Opowiesc katynska )

Katyn (Blu-Ray) (*)

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Original Title: Katyn
Alternate Title: Post mortem. Opowiesc katynska
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain
European Film Awards
Oscar Academy Awards
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
Polish ( Dolby DTS 5.1 )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( Blu-Ray/Region A/B/C )

Running Time:
118 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (2.35:1)

Special Features:
Cast/Crew Interview(s)
Interactive Menu
Making Of
Scene Access
Trailer(s)

Movie filmed in 2007 and produced in:
Poland ( Russia, Eastern Europe )

Directed By:
Andrzej Wajda

Written By:
Andrzej Mularczyk
Przemyslaw Nowakowski

Actors:
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 (as Joachim Assböck)
Waldemar Barwinski ..... Polish Officer

Synopsis:

Celebrated Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda takes the helm for this Oscar-nominated drama detailing the harrowing events surrounding the 1940 massacre of captured Polish army officers in the Katyn Forest. A unique blend of conventional narrative and documentary-style filmmaking, KATYN opens in the spring of 1940, just as the Soviet Secret police execute a group of Polish officers. On September 1, 1939, Germen forces had descended upon Poland, paving the way for the Red Army to occupy east Poland as part of the Hitler-Stalin pact. As the Red Army assumed control of east Poland, all officers in the Polish army were placed in Soviet custody. Determined to remain loyal to the army despite the growing danger, Polish officer Andrzej refuses to flee with his wife, Anna. It isn't long before invading forces begin arresting professors in Cracow, and as the detainees languish in prison camps, their families start to fear that they'll never see their loved ones again. Flash forward to April 1943, and the Germans announce the discovery of mass graves. While Anna is relieved not to hear her husband's name on the list of bodies discovered, countless others are left to grieve their losses with no explanation or consolation. January 18, 1945: Cracow is liberated by the Red Army, and propagandist newsreels from the Soviet Union blame German forces for the massacre at Katyn. It is at that point that the fine line between collaboration and resistance within the People's Republic of Poland becomes exceptionally blurred. As the details surrounding the massacre gradually begin to emerge, Wajda reveals precisely how this horrifying massacre unfolded by flashing back to the spring of 1940 for an extended sequence in which Polish officer internees are transported by railroad to Smolensk and methodically dispatched before being casually buried in a mass grave.

Katyn describes the tragedy of a generation. The film follows the story of four Polish families whose lives are torn apart when, at the outset of WWII, a great number of Polish soldiers (who are also fathers, husbands and brothers) fall into the hands of Soviet troops and later brutally become victims of Stalinism. The film also underlines the complicated circumstances of Poland's position both in the war and after. 'Katyn' tells the story through the eyes of the women; the mothers, wives and daughters of the victims executed on Stalin's orders by the NKVD in 1940. The main male character is Andrzej (played by Artur Zmijewski), a young Polish captain in an Uhlan (light cavalry) regiment who keeps a detailed diary. He is taken prisoner by the Soviet Army, which separates the officers from the enlisted men, who are allowed to return home, while the officers are held. His wife Anna (played by Maja Ostaszewska) and daughter Weronika ('Nika', played by Wiktoria Gsiewska) find him shortly before he is deported to the USSR. Presented with an opportunity to escape, he refuses on the basis of his oath of loyalty to the Polish military. Andrzej ends up in a prisoner of war camp, where he is kept for awhile and continues to keep his diary. He carefully records the names of all his fellow officers who are taken from the camp, as well as the dates they are taken. When winter comes, Andrzej is obviously suffering from the cold temperatures, and his colleague Jerzy (played by Andrzej Chyra) lends him an extra sweater. As it happens, the sweater has Jerzy's name written on it. Finally, it is Andrzej's turn to be taken from the camp, but Jerzy is left behind. At this point, the film fast-forwards to the post-WWII period back in Poland, when and where Andrzej's wife and daughter are still awaiting word about him. News of the Katyn massacre is reported, including the names of the victims, but Andrzej's name is not included in the list of victims, leading his wife and daughter hope that he was not among them. Jerzy, who has survived the war, has enlisted in the Peoples Army of Poland (LWP), which is now under control of the post-WWII communist government, but still feels personal loyalty to his friends, and like all Poles he loves his country and has sympathy for those who have suffered. He visits Anna and her daughter to tell them the news. Apparently, when the list of the names of the victims was compiled, Andrzej was misidentified as Jerzy on the basis of the name in the sweater that Jerzy had lent to Andrzej: it was Andrzej who was killed, not Jerzy.Evidence of Soviet responsibility for the Katyn massacre is carefully concealed by the authorities, but a few daring people working with the effects of the victims finally deliver Andrzej's diary to his widow Anna. The diary clearly shows the date in 1940 when he must have been killed from the absence of entries on subsequent days. The date when the massacre happened is crucial in assigning the responsibility for it: if it happened in 1940, the USSR had military control of the territory where it happened, while by 1941 the Germans had taken control of it.The film ends with a re-enactment of parts of the massacre.

KATY is the story of Polish army officers murdered by the Russia secret police in the Katy forest during the Second World War and the families who, unaware of the crime, were still waiting for their husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers to return. It is a film about the continuing struggle over History and memory, and an uncompromising exploration of the Russian cover up of the massacre that prevented the Polish people from commemorating those that had been killed.

This product was added to our catalog on Thursday 13 May, 2010.

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