Katyn (2007)

An examination of the Soviet slaughter of thousands of Polish officers and citizens in the Katyn forest in 1940.

Director:

Andrzej Wajda

Writers:

Andrzej Mularczyk (story), Przemyslaw Nowakowski (screenplay)

Stars:

Andrzej Chyra, Maja Ostaszewska, Artur Zmijewski

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 14 wins & 12 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Andrzej Chyra	...	Lt. Jerzy
Maja Ostaszewska	...	Anna, Andrzej's wife
Artur Zmijewski	...	Cavalry Capt. Andrzej
Danuta Stenka	...	Róza Smorawinska, general's wife
Jan Englert	...	General Mieczyslaw Smorawinski
Magdalena Cielecka	...	Agnieszka Baszkowska, Lt. Pilot's sister
Agnieszka Glinska	...	Irena Baszkowska
Pawel Malaszynski	...	Lt. Pilot Piotr Baszkowski
Maja Komorowska	...	Andrzej's Mother
Wladyslaw Kowalski	...	Professor Jan
Antoni Pawlicki	...	Tadeusz
Agnieszka Kawiorska	...	Ewa Smorawinska
Sergey Garmash	...	Maj. Popov
Joachim Paul Assböck	...	Obersturmbannführer Bruno Müller (as Joachim Assböck)
Waldemar Barwinski	...	Polish Officer

Storyline

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 ...

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Plot Keywords:

1940s | red army | poland | russia | soviet union | 

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Taglines:

The untold story of the crime Stalin could not hide.

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Genres:

Drama | History | War

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although the personal story in the film is a fictionalised one, the history against which it was set is very real, and is a terrible part of Polish war history. Approximately 22,000 people were murdered by the Soviets during April and May of 1940 after their occupation of eastern Poland. Of those victims, about 14,000 were Polish military officers or police, while the remaining victims were educated professionals and community leaders. They were considered to be "intelligentsia" by the Soviet occupiers, and therefore dangerous to both the regime and Communist ideology. Their bodies were buried in mass graves in various locations, but the first graves were discovered in the Katyn Forest by the Germans and revealed to the world after their invasion of Russia. This is the origin of the name of the Katyn Massacre.

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Goofs

When Soviets are about to execute the General, there is a portrait of Joseph Stalin on the back wall. Stalin on the portrait has the uniform with shoulder straps of the Marshal of Soviet Union. Soviets begun to use shoulder straps in 1943 and Stalin did not had any military rank during events of Katyn massacre. He became Marshal in 1943 and Generalissimus in 1945.

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Connections

Featured in The 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008)

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Soundtracks

The Awakening Of Jacob
Written by Krzysztof Penderecki
Performed by Polish State Philharmonic Orchestra

User Reviews

Katyn - The Prelude

An estimated minimum of 3 million Poles were killed by the Stalinist regime; but as Stalin observed "When one person dies it's a tragedy; when a million people die it's a statistic".

The scope of these activities would be considered genocide, if that term was used to describe political and social, as well as racial and religious populations.

So - less "statistically"- mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, kids, and friends were murdered for the political ends of those who now wish to remain faceless and unknown. It is critical, if we are to emerge as a humane people, that the unknown and faceless multitudes of both victims and their oppressors and killers, be reveled. This movie perhaps, is the first step in that direction.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Poland

Language:

Polish Russian German Ukrainian

Release Date:

21 September 2007 (Poland)

Also Known As:

Das Massaker von Katyn

Filming Locations:

11 Listopada, Praga Pólnoc, Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland

Box Office

Budget:

EUR4,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$11,053, 22 February 2009

Gross USA:

$118,095

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$14,768,451

Company Credits

Production Co:

Akson Studio, TVP, Polski Instytut Sztuki Filmowej

Technical Specs

Runtime:

122 min 118 min 118 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1