Katyn (2007)

92% of critics liked it
(64 reviews)
75% of users liked it
(4,957 ratings)

Celebrated Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda takes the helm for this Oscar-nominated drama detailing the harrowing events surrounding the 1940 massacre of captured Polish army officers in the Katyn Forest. A unique blend of conventional narrative and documentary-style filmmaking, Katyn opens in the… More Celebrated Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda takes the helm for this Oscar-nominated drama detailing the harrowing events surrounding the 1940 massacre of captured Polish army officers in the Katyn Forest. A unique blend of conventional narrative and documentary-style filmmaking, Katyn opens in the spring of 1940, just as the Soviet Secret police execute a group of Polish officers. On September 1, 1939, Germen forces had descended upon Poland, paving the way for the Red Army to occupy east Poland as part of the Hitler-Stalin pact. As the Red Army assumed control of east Poland, all officers in the Polish army were placed in Soviet custody. Determined to remain loyal to the army despite the growing danger, Polish officer Andrzej refuses to flee with his wife, Anna. It isn't long before invading forces begin arresting professors in Cracow, and as the detainees languish in prison camps, their families start to fear that they'll never see their loved ones again. Flash forward to April 1943, and the Germans announce the discovery of mass graves. While Anna is relieved not to hear her husband's name on the list of bodies discovered, countless others are left to grieve their losses with no explanation or consolation. January 18, 1945: Cracow is liberated by the Red Army, and propagandist newsreels from the Soviet Union blame German forces for the massacre at Katyn. It is at that point that the fine line between collaboration and resistance within the People's Republic of Poland becomes exceptionally blurred. As the details surrounding the massacre gradually begin to emerge, Wajda reveals precisely how this horrifying massacre unfolded by flashing back to the spring of 1940 for an extended sequence in which Polish officer internees are transported by railroad to Smolensk and methodically dispatched before being casually buried in a mass grave. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 2 hr. 1 min.
Directed By: Andrzej Wajda
Written By: Andrzej Wajda, Wladyslaw Pasikowski, Przemyslaw Nowakowski
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Feb 18, 2009 Wide
On DVD: Aug 11, 2009
Studio: Artificial Eye

Critic Reviews

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
[Director] Wajda has brought some small measure of rest to their names, to Poland, and to history.
James Adams, Globe and Mail
Katyn is remarkably concise and (if one may say this about a cinematic commemoration of mass murder) elegant.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
Wajda's intensity and passion, as well as his intelligence and craft, are unmistakable from the very first sequence. Virtually from the first shot.
, Boston Globe
The great filmmaker's urge to show generations of his countrymen what they were told not to think about is what moves him, and while "Katyn" rises above didacticism, you can feel the director keeping his emotions in check throughout.
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com
A richly absorbing and intensely painful drama with a tremendous, mostly female cast.
David Denby, New Yorker
A stunning, epic film.
Dan Lybarger, eFilmCritic.com
Oscar-winning Polish writer/director Andrzej Wajda is now 83 years old. But he thankfully hasn't lost his ability to outrage viewers for all the right reasons.
Sean Axmaker, Seanax.com
Andrjez Wajda, whose father was one of the officers killed in Katyn, uses the event to explore some of the unhealed wounds suffered by the Poles in World War II.
Angie Errigo, Empire Magazine
This may not rank among his greatest masterpieces, but it's exciting to see that Wajda still has a devastating, defiant work in him.
Dave Calhoun, Time Out
The principal success of Wajda's stately, widescreen and exquisitely shot film lies in its sober attempt to mirror the fragmented truth of a genocide.
Catherine Bray, Film4
Delivering an emotional punch to the gut in the final reel, this engaging account of an under-reported tragedy will remind you how cinema can still rise to the occasion and go beyond the empty bangs and flashes of tent pole releases.
Kevin Maher, Times [UK]
It is serious film-making of the most noble intent and it strenuously attacks the state ideologies that continue to legitimise war crimes.
Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
This powerful, heartfelt and important drama from one of the great names in world cinema deserves to be seen.
Andrew O'Hagan, This is London
Wajda has achieved something truly memorable: the film reminds you that cinema can be the preserver of the truth's smallest details, when a run of excellent pictures can finally tell a story the world was waiting for.
Sukhdev Sandhu, Daily Telegraph
Katyn is a solemn, troubling film that makes necessary demands on its audience.
Matt Bochenski, Little White Lies
Wajda employs a full range of sweeping shots and orchestral cues to ramp up the emotion, although he's often guilty of sacrificing the intimacy of character for the grander narrative of history.
Rob Daniel, Sky Movies
Mainstream attempts at melodrama, sweeping crane shots and a Charlotte Gray gloss unbalance Wajda's desired mood.
Tom Dawson, Total Film
With its mournful score, muted cinematography and restrained performances, this is a work of sober commemoration, though the climactic depiction of the mass killing is justifiably harrowing.
Christopher Tookey, Daily Mail [UK]
This is an important film that packs a powerful emotional punch almost 60 years after the main events.
David Edwards, Daily Mirror [UK]
A touch hard to tell what's going on at times, the film comes into its own towards the end as it portrays with shocking candour the genocide that still reverberates in Eastern Europe to this day.

Read all 20 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Jan Marc M

Katy? is a brilliant exposition of the evil in the Polish-Russian history, the Katy? Massacre; with impressions of hope, lies, and struggle for identity, honor, and pride. Elegant despite the content. Serious, packing a powerful emotional punch. History made timely, interesting, and… More
Katy? is a brilliant exposition of the evil in the Polish-Russian history, the Katy? Massacre; with impressions of hope, lies, and struggle for identity, honor, and pride. Elegant despite the content. Serious, packing a powerful emotional punch. History made timely, interesting, and relevant.
familiar s

Appreciate it for the historical knowledge it offered (you can blame my knowledge if you're a know-it-all), but the fictionalization and dialogues weren't quite effective.
Randy T

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -George Santayana I have an affinity for true stories, especially those that bring to light an injustice or atrocity. <i>Katyn</i> is a powerful film about the war crimes of the Soviet Union on… More
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -George Santayana I have an affinity for true stories, especially those that bring to light an injustice or atrocity. <i>Katyn</i> is a powerful film about the war crimes of the Soviet Union on the people of Poland, specifically the slaughter of Polish officers in the Katyn forest, 1940. Deeply moving. God bless Poland.
Gordon A

Worthy if plodding account of WWII atrocity which generates an unsettling sense of foreboding as the 'climax' approaches.
Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]"All governments are liars and murderers." - Bill Hicks[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"Katyn" is a heavy-handed and ponderous movie about the slaughter of 20,000 Polish POW's by Soviet troops in the Katyn forest… More
[font=Century Gothic]"All governments are liars and murderers." - Bill Hicks[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"Katyn" is a heavy-handed and ponderous movie about the slaughter of 20,000 Polish POW's by Soviet troops in the Katyn forest in 1940. Take for instance the first scene which has everything except for a baby carriage going down a staircase. On September 17, 1939, the Soviet Union invades Poland, 16 days after Nazi Germany has also done so, and Anna(Maja Ostaszewska) is going in the opposite direction of traffic, desperately looking for her husband(Artur Zmijewski), a major in the Polish army who has just surrendered.(A similar scene was much better depicted in "Europa, Europa.") She eventually finds him along with other prisoners of war, just before they are shipped off to a prison camp run by the Soviet Union.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]While "Katyn" does improve, it also gets to a point where I was wondering exactly where it was going, as tangents spontaneously head off in all directions from the original massacre. Disappointingly, the movie is far more concerned with the cover-up than the crime(The cliche of the victor writing history is especially true in this case) which the Nazis exploited as propaganda before the Soviets turned the tables. This all happens before a spectacularly gratuitous finale. But since we all now know the truth, wouldn't you also like to know why the Soviets committed this atrocity?[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font]
Cinema F

Katyn takes us back to the late 1930's as Word War 2 was unfolding, geographical borders were being pulverised and enemies were approaching from all sides. There has been a wealth of films about this period of time, thanks to a wide range of Jewish film makers ensuring that… More
Katyn takes us back to the late 1930's as Word War 2 was unfolding, geographical borders were being pulverised and enemies were approaching from all sides. There has been a wealth of films about this period of time, thanks to a wide range of Jewish film makers ensuring that the world never forgets, like the revered Polish director Andrzei Wajda, who is now in his 80's, but still making top quality films like this one. Perhaps because he lived it and survived. It was September of 1939 when Poland faced it worst--from the west the German Nazis had invaded and were setting up concentration camps in Cracow. From the east, Stalin's Soviet Red Army were heading in. The Poles were caught flatfooted about where to run and who to trust. Wajda tells the story of this time, through the eyes of women who are left behind as their husbands are held in POW camps. One of these women is Anna (Ostaszewska). She flees alone with her daughter Nika, after her attempt to convince her husband, Polish Captain Andrzej (Zmijewski), to escape with them fails because of his conviction of not leaving his men. The film unfolds through to 1943, when a list of names of 12,000 soldiers found slaughtered in the Katyn forest. And the list turns out to be far from accurate. Katyn is structured to leave us as much in the dark about the fate of the missing men and women. It reminds us again how much WW2 material has remained hidden during the communist years, with the Soviets accepting blame for the massacre only in the 1990's.
Lizzy B

The story of the Polish Officers murdered during WWII by Soviet secret service, the film is quite slow moving in that it takes place over a span of around 5 years yet seems to focus on a lot of not so important events. The true point of the film isn't entirely revealed until the… More
The story of the Polish Officers murdered during WWII by Soviet secret service, the film is quite slow moving in that it takes place over a span of around 5 years yet seems to focus on a lot of not so important events. The true point of the film isn't entirely revealed until the last 5 minutes of the movie when the massacre is revealed in a sort of flash back moment. I haven't seen a lot of Polish films, but I suppose it could just be part of the culture to be a little long and a little boring.
Tom S

A horrifying event, somewhat confusingly told, but beautifully photographed.