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Breathtaking film based on facts that are well played by a nice plethora of Brit actors . An ambitious young journalist -Alex Pettyfer who produces as well- uncovers the horrific slaughter of twenty-two thousand Polish officers during World War II . He meets a Polish soldier who has survived and whose companions were killed at Katyn , but he keeps silence , being chased by military spies . The journalist lives in hopes the polish man tells the actual events , but he's obligated to accuse the Nazis of the horrible deaths . The final credits states : "In 1990, Soviet President Gorbachev admitted that the Soviet Union was responsible for the murders of Polish prisoners of war at Katyn in 1940. No one was ever prosecuted. In 2012, declassified documents proved that the U. S. government suppressed information that attested to Soviet guilt. No British government has ever publicly charged the Soviet Union with responsibility for the Katyn Massacre. This film is dedicated to the 22,000 Polish prisoners of war murdered in the Katyn Massacre and to those murdered in the years that followed so that the truth would remain buried forever."

This notable movie is a vivid portrayal about war and post-war along with a criminal intrigue in which an obstinate journalist attempts to find out real identity of an Eastern European refugee resulting in unexpected consequences . War has rarely been rendered in such an horrid, utterly grim manner, especially in its final part . Harrowing, unnerving drama which depicts the horror of war with a terrible massacre , a secret that has been kept hidden for far too many years and maintaining his possible connection to the British government's collusion in the cover up of one of Joseph Stalin's most notorious crimes. The story contains some overwhelming sequences as the massacre across the Katyn wood and including some actual documentary. Stars Alex Pettyfer who gives an acceptable acting as a young, ambitious journalist who risks love, career, and ultimately his life to uncover the surprising true by taking a notebook . He's well accompanied by a good cast , such as : Robert Wieckiewicz , Talulah Riley and special mention for the veteran Michael Gambon as a chief editor . The motion picture was professionally directed by Piotr Szkopiak, an ordinary TV director.

The historic events in which this movie are based result to be the following ones : Hitler wanted to avoid facing a possible alliance of the Soviet Union , Britain and France. The Western democracies were equally aware of the Soviets' potential to deter German expansion but their negotiations with Stalin did not lead to any agreement. At the same time, however, Hitler had set aside his ideological differences with Stalin in the hopes of making an alliance. In August 1939 he offered Stalin a deal : If the Soviets allowed Germany to attack Western Poland , they would receive eastern Poland and Baltic states. The Munich capitulation of France and Britain to Hitler's demands convinced that they would be unreliable allies . He decided that he had to cope with German expansion eastward on his own, without their help. In late August 1939, German foreign Secretary Joachin Von Ribentropp visited Moscow to sign with Molotov a German-Soviet Nonagression Pact , which included the deal over territory. The agreement between two nations at opposite political extremes, fascism on one side , communism on the other, shocked the world. It also left Hitler with a free hand in Poland. Hitler used an apparent Polish raid on a Radio Station in the German border town of Gleiwitz as an excuse to invade Poland the following day , September 1, 1939. Two days later, on September 3, France and Britain declared war on Germany, WWII had begun. Beaten back by the Germans, Polish forces were now attacked from the east. The Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin ordered his Red Army to cross into eastern Poland. He claimed that he wanted to prevent anarchy caused by the collapse of Polish government. Thousands of Soviet troops poured across the border and raced west to link up with German troops. Organized Polish resistance to the invaders collapsed. In the last week of September Polish troops in Modlin and Warsaw surrounded to the Germans, A small garrison of 4.500 men held out on the Hel Peninsula near Danzing until October 2. Some 694.000 Polish were seized by the victorious Germans and more than 217.000 Poles were rounded up by the Red Army. Both the Germans and Soviets treated the Poles with great brutality. Stalin ordered most of his prisoners deported to the Gulag (a system brutal labor camps) and later taking more than 20.000 officer prisoners were executed in secret.

This tell another story from WW2 which shows just how but the war was many people that were just civilian died for no reason at the hand of dictators and many country had their moments of sin. This is just one case where it shows that it was not just hitler who would be tried of war crimes if it happened today. The film show how millitary died but not deep enough to show Those who died at Katyn included an, admiral, two generals, colonels, lieutenant colonels, majors, captains, naval captains, privates, non-commissioned officers, and chaplains, pilots, government representatives and royalty a prince, officials, and civilians three landowners, refugees, university professors, physicians; lawyers, engineers, and teachers; and writers and journalists and Polish generals.This was all on the orders of starlin and churchil knew about it but did nothing. The fullstory is on wikipedia. If only this was isolated case look at World_War_II_massacres on wiki.

I was so happy to have learned about this. I had no idea. It was a very crucial time at the end of the war but it should have never been covered up and those two men lost their lives just trying to tell the truth. It's amazing the number of lives that were lost for no really reason. Hitler and the Soviets were evil.

The events in Katyn, Kozelsk , Ostashkov , Starobelsk, Jukhnovo , Yuzhe , Tyotkino , Kozelshchyna, Oranki, Vologda, Gryazovets are well documented. These were Soviet extermination centres for Poles who might resist the new partition of Poland. Katyn is simply the easiest as it's the best known, as far back as 1943. The German advance into Belarus uncovers the mass grave of Polish officers, priests, rabbis, lecturers etc. The Nazi's release this as a major propaganda coup, the Polish government in exile calls for an investigation by the International Red Cross. The Soviets cut off all communication with them, does anyone still wonder why the Soviet advance stalled outside Warsaw when the free poles launched an uprising ? The cover-up, yes obviously, the Soviets have destroyed the best of German armies, you don't upset a good ally. When the Cold War starts fingers start to point, only journalist I can find who called this out was Epstein. He basically said Voice of America had and was still covering up the facts because they're commies as well, was an age of McCarthyism remember.

Because of the extreme importance of the matter, I am really uncomfortable to saying this movie is quite a misfire. It could have been so much better, it should have been better. Directing and editing are very confusing: you are not allowed to easily understand the settings or the whole post-war background, there's no difference between the fighting age and the reconstruction time. You can't appreciate any shades that suggeste you are in Russia, England or Poland. The whole movie seems to take place in the same few exteriors. The assembly rythm is terrible: the editing is very boring, so slow that loses all the tension and the final suspense (there's none!), some scenes unnecessary. Nor it helps in taking time to get deep in the characterization of the personages: their portraits are very flat, their evolving in the storyline and the following awareness of human monstrosity (in war and politics both) are superficial. Main character is tedious and pale, as well as being not quite an eagle... Because, maybe, the production tried to avoid volgar spectacularization of the massacres, I guess, it eventually ends up to minimize the real tragedy: the movie turns out to depersonalize victims of Katyn, merely corps, lack of scenes, lack of details... so wrong! The acting is also quite poor and Michael Gambon's performance is completely wasted in two minor scenes...somebody would ask please why in hell he accepted this part...again: bad final editing, quite sure, and not such a good screenplay. Pretty enough are the cinematography and the original soundtracks. Good basic plot, shaking movie structure and timing. In the end, all these aspects stop you to have any kind of "transfert" or to reach a deep empathy that the movie should have inspired. Its greatest fault is the lack of passion and heart: the claim and the reckoning of one of the worst slaughters in the 20th century, I feel, should have been shouted and screamed loudly like a running train to the truth, instead you hear just a whisper. You would have liked to be moved instead of simply Learning an excruciating truth....but, sometimes, could it be enough?

I know this film is labeled a thriller. Even the director called it that in an interview. But it's not. It should have been. The true story upon which the film is based has plenty of intrigue and is rich for story-telling. It's just this film misses the mark. It was intended to be a thriller but fails - in pacing, in music (sets the wrong pace entirely!), in some of the acting. It comes off more as a depressing drama. I love Alex Pettyfer but his character shows little emotion the entire film, except one scene with his brother. His character is way too dialed down. He doesn't come across as ambitious as described, just terribly unhappy and depressed with his life in general. I would have loved to have seen his character fleshed out more. The films pace never changes so there is nothing thrilling in the story telling. It just chugs along like a steady, slow train. It's a very clean film - little to no profanity, no nudity or sex scenes, which is great! I wish more movies today told stories without adding in all of that. And the lighting is a bit off in some scenes, too dark to really see what's going on. It's obvious the film is low budget, but it doesn't look cheap. The cinematography is good. The music terrible - it doesn't add, it just detracts and annoys. Ok film. Could have been so much better.

This film casts a very dour looking lead actor to play the main character. He gives the appearance of someone in need of a good wash! The story itself is not well told and the viewer has to fill in too many gaps. This decreases the level of viewer engagement and interest. It's fine as a history lesson but not that great of a dramatic production!

I like quite a a lot of different movies, I just got lost a bit along the way watching this one . I am gathering the plot is a cover up that is at all Costs trying to remain one . It did drag in some Areas for me . Guess it's to each person to find out if it's their cup of tea.

As other reviews have said this is a film that fails to live up to the importance of the story it tells. A real pity.

Being an Englishman who has been living in Poland for the last 16 years I was interested to see this joint Polish-Anglo production and it is definitely worth it for those viewers who are interested in this period of history just after the end of World War II.

The film, based on a true story, covers the British and American cover up of the Katyn massacre in 1940 by the Russian NKVD of around 22,000 Poles from the intelligentsia, military, church i.e. the country's elite. The victims were shot in the back of the head and buried in mass graves in the Katyn Forest, to be discovered a year later by German forces who were building a road thru the forest. In efforts to maintain the Russian commitment to defeating the Nazis, the massacre was blamed on the Germans.

Alex Pettyfer is very convincing in the role of Stephen Underwood, the young journalist who sets out to discover the mystery of why so many Polish soldiers are committing suicide in his area of Bristol. This is a mission that is of no interest to his editor (Michael Gambon) and he meets several obstacles along the way in his quest to find out the truth.

He is assisted in his quest by his lover, Jeanette Mitchell (Talulah Riley) who gives a good (but a times a little stilted ) performance and his efforts are being monitored by the British, headed by Mason Mitchell (Jeanette's homosexual husband played by Henry Lloyd-Hughes, who also puts in a convincing performance). The witness is played by the well-known actor, Robert Wieckiewicz, and his role is at the crux of the film's plot.

So, all in all a definite recommendation to see this film. Piotr Szkopiak (born to Polish parents in London - they were deported from Poland in 1939), who is both the film's director and co-writer, looks like a promising young director to watch out for.

Interesting story about an important subject matter

But acting was very poor, and suffered for what came across as a restricted budget

If you want to find out about Katyn, don't watch this plodding nonsense. As usual the focus is on the deep state and it's penchant for killing off whistle blowers. The bigger story, the massacres, the lies and the cover up is reduced to a dull plebeian C grade movie which focuses more on the private lives of the people than he story. Michael Gambon, the only name actor in it, has precious little to do until the end. It looks like a made for TV movie, one for Fox not MSNBC.

This is a story that needs telling and the premise - that a journalist stumbles on the story and tries to expose it (that's the fictional bit) - is a great storyline. Sadly, the film is let down by some wooden acting. Talulah Riley is - frankly - terrible. Alex Pettyfer, as the moody journalist with a history is better but some of his acting leaves a bit to be desired.

Historically, it's well done. I could quibble over all the military personnel wandering around with their coats flapping in the breeze (I'd have got a right bollocking), and Military Policemen guarding the Foreign Office archives(!) - who let some random 'officer' in without so much as a raised eyebrow - but I'll forgive those. What I do want to know is who thought it was a good idea (and realistic?) to have a reporter working in a local newspaper in 1947 who doesn't seem to shave (or wear a tie), let alone a Polish army colonel with a face that hasn't seen a razor in days!

I've given it seven stars because, fundamentally, I like the film and I like the story. If you're looking for award-winning acting, however, look somewhere else.

What a pity. The film tells historical events of great importance, but it is plagued with bad/weak performances.

One car hardly expect a cheerful movie about a massacre and The Last Witness delivers perfect gloominess in the tense atmosphere of post-WWII Britain.

At the end of the war Europe was left in ruins with millions of refugees, many of whom had no home to return to. This was especially true for citizen of what had just become the "Soviet block", and specifically the Polish citizen who'd suffer terrible hardship at the hands of both the Germans and the Russian.

The movie opens with the suicide of a Polish citizen residing in a military camp in Bristol. Journalist Stephen Underwood thinks too many Polish citizens residing in the area are killing themselves and sniffs around for a story. Unfortunately, he has no idea whatsoever of what he's about to stumble into and that's the massive cover up of the Katyn massacre, a most notorious crime ordered by Stalin.

There are a few plots holes in the movie, such as the role of the Polish colonel and Underwood's lover role into betraying the witness, but the result is still a solid, gloomy melancholic movie.

It's potentially a good story but the acting - lead character dressed in 1920/30s costume with Rudy loud hair and moustache - is woeful. It's good historical story if only they'd executed it better.

The Katyn massacre by the Soviets in 1940 remained officially undisclosed until 1990 when Gorbachev admitted it. The unofficial truth was known by the British and American governments during World War II and by the public since the late 1940s. This film follows a journalist's fight to tell the truth to the public and the repercussions of his actions.

Whoever gave this film a 1 must be crazy. Extremely well shot and acted, this is a good film especially if you are interested in the Katyn massacre. An Anglo- Polish production, it is not a Hollywood blockbuster but a very poignant tale told in a non-Hollywood way..I enjoyed it.

The story of how the Katyn massacre was discovered deserves to be told. Unfortunately this badly cast, weakly written and produced film failed to engage in any way. It really is a missed chance.

The characters and intrigue are well played. However, the lead actor left very little room for empathy involving his interest in the plot. This would have made a much better film with different casting.

It is a very interesting history and very serious one to make sucha a bad film. The direction is a disaster and the actors are very, very bad. That director sudnt make another film- Pedro

This movie isn't from the point of view of the Polish victims of Stalin's massacre. It's about the coverup by the Soviets and surprisingly suppression of the truth by the British government for appeasement reasons and finally the revelation of the massacre by a by a journalist.

Alex Pettyfer is a bit dour looking here in a costume that looks more 20s than 40s and not too expressive but he shouldn't overshadow the story anyway.

Don't expect an action packed war movie. It's about revelation of the massacre.