KATYN

Year: 2007
USA: Koch Lorber Films
UK: Artificial Eye
Cast: Artur Zmijewski, Maja Ostaszewska, Maja Komorowska, Wladyslaw Kowalski, Jan Englert, Danuta Stenka, Andrzej Chyra, Pawel Malaszynski, Magdalena Cielecka, Agnieszka Glinska, Siergiej Garmasz, Krzysztof Kolberger, Krzysztof Globisz, Anna Radwan, Antoni Pawlicki, Joanna Kawiorskie, Agnieszka Kawiorskie, Wiktoria Gosiewska, Stanislawa Celinska, Jakub Przebindowski, Alicja Dabrowska
Director: Andrezj Wajda
Country: Poland
Language: Polish (English subtitles)
USA: 117 mins
UK: 122 mins
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong violence
USA Release Date: 18 February 2009 (Limited Release - New York)
UK Release Date: 19 June 2009 (Limited Release)
US Distributor
UK Distributor

Synopsis

KATYN is the story of Polish officers murdered by the NKVD in Katyn during World War 2 and their families who, unaware of the crime, were still waiting for their husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers to return. KATYN is also a film about an invincible struggle for memory and truth and an uncompromising reckoning with the lie of the communist powers created to force Poland to forget those who had been killed.

At the beginning of World War 2 on September 17, 1939 after Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland, the Red Army also trespassed on Polish soil on Joseph Stalin's orders. Consequently, all Polish officers found themselves in Soviet internment.

Anna, the wife of an Uhlan Regiment Captain, is waiting for her man, and although she is in denial, she receives undisputable evidence of his murder by the Russians. The wife of a General learns of her husband's death after the Germans discover mass graves of Polish officers in the KatynForest. Agnieszka, the sister of a pilot who has met the same fate as the other Polish soldiers, is broken-hearted by the silence and lies told about the crime. The Captain's friend Jerzy, who has entered the ranks of the Polish People's Army, is the only survivor.

What will become of these women, waiting for their beloved in the Polish state and who after the war are dependent on Soviet Russia? Will homeland and freedom retain the same meaning for those who have accepted the new system?