Kirpianuscus a delicate subject. and an impeccable translation on the screen. in few words, one of the films who looking for reconquest the lines, emotions and tragedies of the recent history. and this did it not exactly a lesson of history but a kind of exorcism. because it is a courageous exercise to say the truth behind the political interests or the ideological colors. a story about people and decisions and a war like a drop of amber. it is not easy to say why but, certainly, it is a film who must see. not as translation of a bitter moment in images. maybe, not for the artistic virtues. but for the the simple motif to discover the truth who remains foundation of the present reality.

alexdeleonfilm KATYN: A stunning Grande Finale evokes a Silence of the Lambs ~ Viewed at the Annual Polish film week in Gdynia, September 18, 2007. The latest film by 81 year old Polish director Andrej Wajda, "KATYN" concerning the mass murder of Polish Prisoners of War perpetrated by the Russians in 1940 and for years either hushed up or cynically blamed on the Germans, is more than just another film by a famous director. It has become a "cause celèbre" and a national event stirring up the collective Polish memory of this incredible Russian atrocity"Katyn" is the name of a forest area outside of the city of Smolesk where over a three day period in May, 1940, 15,000 Polish POWs, mostly officers, were taken by the truckload and methodically dispatched one by one with a single bullet to the nape of the neck by agents of Stalin's NKVD. The nefarious purpose was to try to ensure that after the war there would be no high-level Polish military cadre left to oppose the Russification and Communization of Poland. (Talk about thinking ahead!)Stylistically, "Katyn" was apparently shot in "classical style" and, Mr. Wajda has stated that this is "the last film of the Polish School" -- a reference to the period of post-war Polish films of the fifties which put Poland on the international cinema map and of which a very young Wajda was the leading lightAs for the film itself, it turned out to be more like a religious experience than the mere viewing of a motion picture – which is not to say that "Katyn" is not successful on cinematic grounds alone – just that the cumulative effect was overwhelming – truly Over-Whelming. The picture starts in the middle of a bridge on dateline September 17, 1939 – a date which every Pole knows to be the infamous day on which the Russians invaded from the East to crush Poland and divide it up between themselves and the German invaders from the west. Crowds of civilians mixed with soldiers fleeing the Krauts run into another crowd fleeing the Russians –What to do? ~ One young woman with a small child tries to persuade her soldier husband to discard his uniform and flee with her to the relative safety of Krakow in the South. "I am an officer of the Polish Army – I can't do that" he states, invoking the aristocratic Polish military code which Wajda has called into question in many other films. – and so he falls into Russian custody, from which he will never return. Already the die of the film is cast and the subsequent events – the internment of the officers, the women back home trying to find out what happened to their men – the official lies – the cynicism – the desperate attempts to find out, the clinging to hope against hope and the frustration which is the body of the film, are all things completely, if painfully, familiar to just about every person in this country, even today. There are too many people still alive who went through it all. The bulk of the film takes place on the "home front" with notable female roles, especially dark-haired Maja Ostaszewska, to single out just one of several powerful distaff figures, and there is one important Russian character, an officer who tries to protect one of the protesting Polish women, played by the very popular Russian actor Sergei Garmash – a subtle indication that this film is not specifically anti-Russian – and then comes the Grand Finale.Switch to Katyn Forest. The trucks come rumbling in. The Polish officers are unloaded, one by one – and one by one shot in the back of the head – shoved screen forward into a gaping hole in the ground – bang-bang – push-push – plop-plop into the ditch – bodies with bloodied heads stacked up neatly like sacks of potatoes – then comes the bulldozer shoving loose dirt practically out of the screen and into the laps of the audience to cover up the obscenity – one upraised hand clutching a string of black rosary beads is the last to go under -- Screen goes black. End titles roll. No music. No sound. Nothing. Dead silence. One tiny flimsy attempt at a clip-clap is drowned out by the Silence of the Lambs as the audience files out without a word …No number of stars can rate this film.

tao902 A Polish film by Andrzej Wajda about the Katyn massacres during the 2nd World War. 15000 Polish officers and citizens were massacred in 1940 and officially the Nazis were blamed. However, a lot of evidence was revealed that indicated it was the Soviet Union that carried out the massacres.The film shows the effects the massacres had on the families of the officers. The film also shows attempts to reveal the truth in the post-war years and the brutal responses of the Soviet backed regime to cover up the truth.The retelling is inter-cut with some documentary footage from the time. Well worth seeing.

MartinHafer 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.