Katyn (2007)

Katyn is a Polish historical drama which premiered in 2007. It is the story about a horrible crime, one of the worst crimes that was committed during World War 2. While the characters are fictional, they are placed in a historical context, and the main story is true: the drama is inspired by real events. Here is some basic information about it:

** Director: Andrzej Wajda (1926-2016)
** Writers: Przemyslaw Nowakowski, Wladyslaw Pasikowski, and Andrzej Wajda
** Based on the book Post Morten: The Story of Katyn by Andrzej Mularczyk
** Soundtrack: Polish, German, Russian
** Subtitles: English
** Released on DVD in 2009
** Available on Amazon Prime Video since 2009
** Run time: 121 minutes

The cast includes the following:

** Artur Zmijewski as Andrzej – an officer in the Polish Army

** Maja Ostaszewska as Anna – Andrzej’s wife

** Wiktoria Gasiewska as Weronika (“Nika”) – daughter of Andrzej and Anna

** Wladyslaw Kowalski as Professor Jan – Andrzej’s father

** Maja Komorowska as Andrzej’s mother

** Jan Englert as the (Polish) General

** Danuta Stenka as Roza – the (Polish) General’s wife

** Agnieszka Kawiorska as Ewa – daughter of the (Polish) General and Roza

** Andrzej Chyra as Jerzy – an officer in the Polish Army

** Pawel Malaszynski as Piotr – a pilot in the Polish Airforce

** Magdalena Cielecka as Agnieszka – Piotr’s sister

PART ONE

The drama begins in 1939 and covers the time until 1946 or 1947 (one or two years after the end of the war). The opening scene takes place on 17 September 1939. World War 2 has just begun. Poland is under attack from two sides: Germany invades from the west, while the USSR invades from the east. The Polish Army surrenders, because it does not stand a chance, and the people who want to escape the foreign invaders have nowhere to run.

One month before, Germany and the USSR signed a treaty of friendship or non-aggression. The treaty includes a secret protocol in which the two friends agree to divide Poland between them. Germany will take the western half, while the USSR will take the eastern half. The treaty has another secret stipulation: if the USSR wants to invade and annex the three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), German has no objections to this.

In the eastern zone, Soviet forces arrest and deport thousands of Poles: the officers of the army, leading politicians, cultural leaders and prominent academics. In the spring of 1940 these prisoners of war (POWs) are executed and buried in mass graves in Katyn and two other locations. More than 5,000 are buried in each location. Katyn is located 18-19 km west of Smolensk.

The treaty of friendship does not last long: on 22 June 1941, Germany begins a large-scale invasion of the USSR. At first, the attack is successful. For a while Germany controls all of Poland, the three Baltic States, and the western part of the USSR.

In 1943, German forces discover the mass graves in Katyn. When they study the bodies, they realize that the people who are buried here are the officers of the Polish Army who had disappeared after they were captured and deported to the USSR. Since the spring of 1940, nobody had heard anything from them.

Germany claims the USSR has committed a serious crime. The leaders of the USSR are not happy to be accused in this way, but they cannot deny that the bodies found are the bodies of the Polish officers, the former POWs. They do not want to confess. Therefore they come up with a counter-claim:

In 1941, when Germany invaded the USSR, and Soviet forces had to withdraw in great haste, the Polish POWs were unfortunately left behind. They were captured by German forces who killed them in the autumn of 1941. This is the Soviet version of events in Katyn and the USSR will stick to this line for fifty years.

In 1944, when the German forces have been expelled from the USSR, the bodies in Katyn are dug up one more time. A Soviet scientific commission investigates and confirms the Soviet line: the Polish POWs were killed by the Germans in 1941.

In Poland nobody believes this version, but they are not allowed to say so. The truth can only be whispered behind closed doors.

In this drama, we follow several Polish characters whose lives are turned upside down because of the German and the Soviet invasions. The major characters are Anna, her husband Andrzej, and their daughter Nika, who are in the eastern zone. Andrzej is arrested and deported to Katyn, where he is killed, while Anna and Nika both survive the war. Secondary characters include Andrzej’s parents, who live in Krakow in the western zone. Andrzej’s father Jan is arrested by the Germans.

PART TWO

What do reviewers say about this historical drama? Here are the results of three review aggregators:

** 71 per cent = IMDb
** 81 per cent = Meta
** 94 per cent = Rotten Tomatoes

As you can see, these ratings hover around 80 per cent. The first one (IMDb) is a bit below, while the third one (Rotten Tomatoes) is a bit above. The average is 82 per cent. If you ask me, this rating is quite appropriate. This drama is good but not great. There are some flaws. Let me explain:

# 1. New characters are introduced in the middle of the story. Here is one example: after the end of the war, in 1946 or 1947, Agnieszka wants to set up a tombstone for her brother who was a pilot in the Polish Airforce. The tombstone says he was killed in Katyn in 1940. But this is not allowed! The text must say that he was killed in Katyn in 1941. Because Poland is now controlled by the USSR. There is a long dispute about the tombstone.

I do not object to the story about Agnieszka and the tombstone. It is good and relevant. My point is we have not seen her before. She was not in the story from the beginning. She pops up when we are half-way through the story. It is not a good idea to introduce an important character in the middle of the story. There are other examples.

# 2. The story is set in Poland and the western part of the USSR. The time frame is 1939 to 1946 or 1947. But there is nothing about the western allies and their response to the findings in Katyn.

In 1941, when Germany invaded the USSR, the western powers made an alliance with the USSR. Since the western powers did not want to endanger their alliance with Stalin, they did not object to the Soviet version of events in Katyn. The western allies knew the German version was true and the Soviet version was false, but they did not say this in public. This fact is not mentioned in the drama.

# 3. In 1990, as the Cold War was coming to an end, the Soviet Government finally admitted that old Soviet line was not true: the Polish POWs had been killed by the Soviet secret police (NKVD) in Katyn and two other locations in the spring of 1940. This fact is not mentioned in the drama.

CONCLUSION

The story of Katyn is important. It deserves to be told. Since it is a story about a horrible crime, I cannot say you will enjoy it, but I do think you can appreciate it. I want to give this drama a good rating, but as you can see, there are some flaws. I have to remove one star because of them. Therefore I think it deserves a rating of four stars.

PS # 1. For more information, see the following books:

** Katyn: Stalin’s Massacre and the Triumph of Truth by Allen Paul (2010)

** Katyn 1940: The Documentary Evidence of the West’s Betrayal by Eugenia Maresch (2010)

PS # 2. The Last Witness is a historical drama that premiered in 2018. The story is set in the UK in 1947. A young, ambitious journalist discovers some information about Katyn and realizes that the British government does not want him to tell the truth about what happened and when it happened.

PS # 3. In April 2010 a Polish aircraft crashed in a forest near Smolensk. All passengers and crew (96 persons) were killed. The passengers were the top brass of Poland who were flying from Warsaw to Smolensk in order to attend an official ceremony to remember the massacre of Katyn in 1940. The passengers included:

** The President of Poland Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria

** The President of Poland in Exile Ryszard Kaczorowski

** The Chief of the Polish General Staff

** Senior Polish military officers

** The President of the Bank of Poland

** 18 members of the Polish Parliament

** Senior members of the Polish clergy

How could this happen? A national tragedy for Poland. And it happened next to the place where another national tragedy had happened in 1940. The crash was investigated by Russia and by Poland. Both investigations concluded that the plane had crashed because of bad weather and errors committed by the pilots. However, some observers are convinced that sinister forces were behind the crash.

The television series Mayday devoted an episode to this case: “Death of the President,” season 12 episode 10, aired in 2013. There is also a Polish movie about the case: Smolensk (2016). This movie received mixed reviews: some reviewers say it is excellent, while others claim it is awful.

I wonder why so many important people were allowed to fly on the same plane. Why not travel in three or four separate groups? I also wonder why they had to fly. The distance from Warsaw to Smolensk is less than 800 km (less than 500 miles). Why not travel by bus or by train?

*****

 

 Andrzej Wajda (1926-2016)

*****