Katyn

Katyn ostensibly chronicles the Katyn Forest massacre: a mass execution of over 15,000 Polish officers, soldiers, and civilian prisoners of war by the invading Soviet army in 1940. But director Andrzej Wajda, whose father was one of the officers killed at Katyn, uses the event to explore the trauma suffered by the Poles in WWII. From its opening scene in 1939, with the invasion of Poland simultaneously by the Soviets from the East and the Germans from the West, Wajda presents the actions of both armies as parallel: two military occupations that differed very little in the eyes of the Polish citizens. But to Wajda the greater outrage is that the victorious Soviets denied the Katyn massacre and officially enforced their lies, using intimidation, threats, and punishment. A 2008 Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, Katyn is not one of Wajda's great films like Ashes & Diamonds—essentially because its themes overwhelm the human stories—yet it does offer a devastating portrait of the terrible massacre and the systematic suppression of the truth that tore apart the Polish national soul. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include an in-depth interview with director Wajda (50 min.) and a “making-of” featurette (27 min.). Bottom line: a fine extras package for a solid Wajda film.] (S. Axmaker)