Katyn (The Film) How close to real life is it??

I'm just about to watch the film 'Katyn' and was wondering how true to 'real life' events it was???

Please could i have some sensible answers as i don't really understand what the film is about, yes i understand its about war, Germans one side and the Soviets the other, best of two evils etc. I just want to know if what i'm watching is fictional or based on true events.

Thnx

T

true events

ok thanks Miranda, i will write later what i thought of the movie when i've watched it :)

great:)

The creation of the screenplay about Katyn took several years. The long, arduous process of looking through huge quantities of individual recollections, diaries, and other mementos confirmed my determination to base this first film about Katyn on the facts these materials related. And this is how the film's opening scene on the bridge, as well as the one featuring Soviet soldiers defacing the Polish flag, came to be. Most of the incidents depicted on the screen actually happened and were reported by eye-witnesses.
LINK

thnx guys

My Grandfather was on the Bug river bridge.
I mean September 1939 after the Russian aggression.

Agression? Ha ?! What did you mean? Actually Poland was a part of Russian Empire, do you remember? It was just the repair of Empire by other means!

You know I have lived in Poland for eight years now, and I am very interested in the personal history's of the people I have met. And the repeated story that everyone I meet is how the last war affected their families, from my wife's own grandmother surviving the concentration camp in Majdanek, to the personal family stories of Katyn.
I have lived in many countries in Europe, and each have their own story to tell of suffering from world war II, but never has one such a tragic story as Poland.
Yet what I love about this country is that they are survivors and always move on; maybe it is too much pain to remember I don't know, whatever it is I am proud to live amongst these people.

My great grandfather was still fighting on the German front when his family had to escape from Brest - Litovsk.
Later on he became German POW and survived the war.
Nearly all his colleagues - Polish officers died in Katyn.
Their families which decided to stay in the Russian zone were taken to some penal colony in Kazakhstan.
Most of them starved.

It must be sad - Sim Sim Sala Bim are the magic words said by
Yelltsin and the Empire does not exist anymore.
How sad.
Cry us a river over your empire dear Constantine.
I'm all ear.

what was the repair of the empire by other means?? please care to explain your words

No, in 1920 Poland regained her freedom.

I just don't know what else to say, baby
There's really nothing left to say
There's really.. nothing more I can say
But I hate you.. Listen
Yeah, I hate you.. I hate you
Listen

Since you came inside my life,
You've given me the best of you
Every day and night,
I found my happiness in you
Make me wanna ride
To the end of any valley

Then you give me peace of mind,
You bring me comfort to my soul
Give me such a high,
No, I will never let you go
You make me wanna fly
To the top of every rainbow

Listen..

[Chorus:]
I hate you more everyday
You show me hate in every way
There's nothing left for me to say
But I hate you
[Repeat:]

More and more everyday

So promise me you'll never leave
And never say this is the end,
You'll spend your life with me,
You'll be my wife and my best friend
Raise a family,
Something we both can treasure

In the meantime,
I'm gonna put in work
You' gonna be fine,
You'll never have to work
So, won't you come and fly with me
Forever, you and me
That's how it's s'pposed to be,
I hate you

right ok, singing a song to a guy!!!!


Yeah and then again afterwards was invaded not 20 years later!!!!!

Poland has had more owners than the average ford sierra :)

=DD
Don't tell me you think Poland will end up in Turkish hands!

hahaha, lol, no way, that is one thing they won't get their hands on. I think half of Cyprus is enough for them at the moment

Well what did you think of the film then tornado?

Actually just 3 and all of them at the same time so they had to share, none of them was strong enough to have her all to themselves. It wasn’t ownership more like a timeshare deal, because the so called owners were too poor or weak to own the whole thing by themselves.

Well i watched the film last night and found it very interesting, i've always been into wartime films (ture to life or not) and having hardly any knowledge on the Katyn incident (hence why i never talk about it on here) was listening with intent to find out more.

I could see that a lot of background work had gone into the film, to make sure that the facts were brought accross throughout the movie. I like the idea of following a 'certain' family throughout the whole film too, it gets you more involved with the emotions involved and what people must have gone through at the time.

I also liked the way that the further through the film you got the more it pulled at those heartsrings. To be honest i wasn't expecting the ending, i thought that when you found out that Andrejz was dead you would not see those last scenes, i thought this as i wasn't sure what Polish films show and do not show. What i mean by this is how shocking those last scenes are, in the UK and the US there is no hesitation to show shocking scenes such as the last one. Obviously in this case it was important to show that to 'hit home' the message.

I actually after the film sat and thought about the whole thing for a long time in silence, i watched it on my own so didn't discuss it with anybody. Apart from all the obvious thoughts involving the characters and actual events i found myself thinking again and again, what it must of been like to be one of the executioners. I noticed that they never had to look at those they shot however i was left wondering if they volunteered to do it or whether in true soviet style were forced into it??

So due to all that i have written above it is probably one of the best films i have watched, if not the best with subs.


that sums it up pretty well actually

P.S. there are always to bits that i will remember in the film, the first is the one right at the end of the film, when they are executing the Polish officers, there is one guy who has to go through the nightmare of living a few extra seconds more than he expected when the gun needed reloading after the click of the empy chamber.

The second is when the film is showed about the events at Katyn, where all the doctors, investigators are showing how the people were executed and how it was a typical Gustapo eecution. It wasn't only that but the reaction of the woman watching it afterwards

I'm more than just a little curious how are they going to make amends, to the dead?

I think sadly this will never happen, but at least we can try to remember them with pride.
Very powerful video by the way celinski.

On a light note. Just been reading reviews of a Polish performance of the Sarah Kane play 'Psychosis' at the Edinburgh Festival. The 'Scotland on Sunday' article rabbits on about how wonderful Magdalena Cielecka is (another pretty Polish girl playing the part of someone going totally doolally thereby having her Warholian 15 minutes in the UK before returning to the Viva/Gala party circuit in Warsaw). Anyway, the review proudly announced that she was last seen in Wajda's Oscar nominated movie 'KATY'!! I wonder if she played the part of Katy in that one? :)

i just got katyn on dvd. i cant recommend it highly enough. very moving.

i call Russians to be resonable!

i call Russians to apologize to Poland over Katyn massacre. Truth is that Russians didn`t invent communism, truth is that Soviet soldiers didn`t act for the glory of Russia but to spread communism, truth is that Russian people was biggets victim of non-Russian leaders of Soviet Union..... but, anyway.... Russian hands were tool for crime that happened

So Russians, apologize to Poles, do it, Poles deserve at least that... that we all can consolidate and coordinate in defense of mutual Slavic interests

Bracie, it is easy to enough to get apologies from Russian people, which in my mind should be just as gratifying, but from the government? I doubt this will come within the next decade or so. They are not yet ready. I once saw on Polish news a while ago, they showed the reaction of some Russians, (in Russia) after seeing Katyn at the theatre. Many were crying, and shaking their heads. This is a good sign that at least most of the Russian people are open for dialogue.



Yes.. Jewish invention, and a tool used by the Germans to inject poison into the Russian Empire during WW1.



Hopefully dialogue will continue to strengthen, and eventually, there will be a heartfelt attempt from both the Russian and Polish govermnents to resolve this.

Does anyone know where I can get this DVD? Any websites that ship to US cities? Thanks.

The movie is right on the dot!!!!!!!!

Crow, what you're saying is nice, but it's highly unlikely to happen as long as we both have such governments at the helm. In another thread Juliet broght up a good issue about doublestadarts in Kazhynski policy. Katyn is used as a decoy for potential electorate. On the other hand putin doesn't give a heck about anything... It's a vicious circle which you can get out from only changing the government or either policy in general.
There are many Russians who know and who care, but there're even more who don't, since there's nothing on TV or radio about that.

Thank you for being honest. I think in time as more people learn of the history the presure will be put on the Goverment of Russia to stop avoiding responsibility.

This also shines the spot light on Putin's actions and hopefully Russians will see his actions as hurting vs. helping the way Russia fits in.