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
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

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 | officer | forest | slaughter | 

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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

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:

PLN 15,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$11,053, 22 February 2009, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$118,095, 19 April 2015

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$14,723,313, 19 April 2015

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

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

References Sleeping Beauty (1959)

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Soundtracks

Concerto For Cello And Orchestra No. 2
Written by Krzysztof Penderecki
Performed by Polish State Philharmonic Orchestra

User Reviews

"...And Ye Shall Know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH Shall Set Ye Free!"

.......................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, Colombia & ORLANDO, FL

Katyn makes it painfully clear that the truth was a very scarce commodity throughout decades of Soviet domination. Considering Katyn was released nearly 20 years after the end of the Communist/Soviet era in Poland. It seems, to me at least, somewhat baffling that it took Polish film-makers so long to share these tragic and poignant true events with the world.

In historical retrospect, Nazi atrocities perpetrated against Poland and its people have been well circulated and repeated tirelessly over past decades. On the other hand, there has been a virtual dearth of information regarding Soviet atrocities. "WWII was triggered by the German blitzkrieg invasion of Poland in September, 1939." is what we Americans have been told ad nauseam for decades.

What is rarely ever mentioned is the simultaneous eastern invasion of Poland by Soviet forces! While Nazi aberrations such as Auschwitz and the Warsaw ghetto have been chronicled in numerous well-known films, this marks the first time, in my recollection at least, that Soviet war crimes have been dealt with openly and clearly in a movie. Katyn relates this true war time story through the interwoven lives of a dozen or so family members and friends. Within minutes of viewing, the story had me totally in its grip, and even though the eventual outcome is a historical fact we are all keenly aware of, the story unfolded in such a way as to never lose my interest.

9*.....ENJOY/DISFRUTELA!

Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome!