International premiere for Katyn at Berlin
Since its release in Polish cinemas on September 21, Katyn [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrzej Wajda
interview: Michal Kwiecinski
film profile], the latest film by Andrzej Wajda, has garnered 2.7m admissions.
The film will have its international première at the forthcoming Berlinale, where it will be presented by the director and cast at the Festival Palace. In keeping with Wajda’s wishes, the film will not, however, be in official competition.
Significantly, the film by Wajda (recipient of a career Oscar in 2000 and the Lifetime Achievement Golden Bear in 2006) is the first Polish feature about the massacre of thousands of Polish prisoners by the Soviet secret services in 1940 – a historical event covered up by the Communist powers almost until 1990. Yet Wajda’s main intent was not to simply present the truth about the massacre, facts that have already been made known historically and politically, but to recount the event from an individual perspective, from the point of view of the families torn apart by the tragedy.
Said Wajda: "I think the film reveals a painful truth, and its heroes are not the dead soldiers but the women who waited for their return every hour of every day, living in uncertainty.”
Shot between October 2006 and January 2007, the film’s screenplay – by Wajda, Wladyslaw Pasikowski and Przemyslaw Nowakowski – is based on Andrzej Mularczyk’s short story "Katyn. Post Mortem".
The director recruited a host of Polish film stars spanning various generations: Andrzej Chyra, Maja Ostaszewska, Artur Zmijewski, Danuta Stenka, Jan Englert, Magdalena Cielecka, Maja Komorowska, Krzysztof Globisz, Krzysztof Kolberger and many more.
The film is lensed by Pawel Edelman.
Produced by Akson Studio and co-produced by TVP Telewizja Polska - Agencja Filmowa and TP (Telekomunikacja Polska S.A.), with the support of the Polish Film Institute (PISF), the film is a nominee for the Golden Globe Award shortlist and a hopeful for the 2008 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination.
(Translated from French)
Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.
