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Andrzej Wajda KATYN Best Foreign Language Film nominee, the 80th Academy Awards® Sunday, February 24, 2008 Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2007 will be presented Katyn, directed by Andrzej Wajda, Poland (2007, 120 min.) |
This account of events surrounding the 1940 massacre of captured Polish army officers in the Katyn Forest focuses on the story of a captain and his wife, who refuses to believe he is dead. A gesture of friendship within the harsh confines of the prison camp where Andrzej and his fellow officers are held will result in the mistaken identification that helps keep his wife's hopes alive.
Following the Soviet Union’s invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939, 14,500 Polish army officers, police, gendarmes, and civilians taken prisoner by the Red Army and held in three special NKVD camps – Kozielsk, Ostaszkowo and Starobielsk – and executed at three different sites in spring 1940, of which the one in Katyn Forest is the most famous. Another 7,300 prisoners held in NKVD jails in Ukraine and Belarus were also shot at this time, although many others disappeared without trace.
In February 1943 the Germans announced that they had discovered the graves of those murdered by the NKVD in Katyn. The Soviets denied this fact and accused the Germans of the crime. The Soviets deliberately fabricated evidence to try to authenticate their story. In Communist Poland telling the truth about Katyn resulted in persecution by the Secret Police. "Katyn" does not tell the story of the Katyn massacre; rather, the film tells about the Katyn lie. The families of the murdered had to live with an awareness not only of this immense crime, but also of the cynical lie fabricated by the Soviet state. These families' fate is the main subject of this film.
(Please note that Katyn: A Crime Without Punishment, edited by Anna M. Cienciala, Natalia S. Lebedeva, and Wojciech Materski, was published by Yale University Press in January, 2008.)
Director: Andrzej Wajda
Screenplay: Andrzej Mularczyk, Andrzej Wajda
Cinematography: Pawel Edelman, Marek Rajca (September sequence)
Art Director: Magdalena Dipont
Producer: Michal Kwiecinski
Cast: Maja Ostaszewska, Artur Zmijewski, Maja Komorowska, Andrzej Chyra, Jan Englert, Danuta Stenka, Pawel Malaszynski, Magdalena Cielecka
This is the 8th Academy Award nomination for Poland. Previous nominations were:
Following the Soviet Union’s invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939, 14,500 Polish army officers, police, gendarmes, and civilians taken prisoner by the Red Army and held in three special NKVD camps – Kozielsk, Ostaszkowo and Starobielsk – and executed at three different sites in spring 1940, of which the one in Katyn Forest is the most famous. Another 7,300 prisoners held in NKVD jails in Ukraine and Belarus were also shot at this time, although many others disappeared without trace.
In February 1943 the Germans announced that they had discovered the graves of those murdered by the NKVD in Katyn. The Soviets denied this fact and accused the Germans of the crime. The Soviets deliberately fabricated evidence to try to authenticate their story. In Communist Poland telling the truth about Katyn resulted in persecution by the Secret Police. "Katyn" does not tell the story of the Katyn massacre; rather, the film tells about the Katyn lie. The families of the murdered had to live with an awareness not only of this immense crime, but also of the cynical lie fabricated by the Soviet state. These families' fate is the main subject of this film.
(Please note that Katyn: A Crime Without Punishment, edited by Anna M. Cienciala, Natalia S. Lebedeva, and Wojciech Materski, was published by Yale University Press in January, 2008.)
Director: Andrzej Wajda
Screenplay: Andrzej Mularczyk, Andrzej Wajda
Cinematography: Pawel Edelman, Marek Rajca (September sequence)
Art Director: Magdalena Dipont
Producer: Michal Kwiecinski
Cast: Maja Ostaszewska, Artur Zmijewski, Maja Komorowska, Andrzej Chyra, Jan Englert, Danuta Stenka, Pawel Malaszynski, Magdalena Cielecka
This is the 8th Academy Award nomination for Poland. Previous nominations were:
- Man of Iron (dir. Andrzej Wajda, 1981) - Nominee, Foreign Language Film
- The Maids of Wilko (dir. Andrzej Wajda, 1979) - Nominee, Foreign Language Film
- Nights and Days (dir. Jerzy Antczak, 1976) - Nominee, Foreign Language Film
- The Promised Land (dir. Andrzej Wajda, 1975) - Nominee, Foreign Language Film
- The Deluge (dir. Jerzy Hoffman, 1974) - Nominee, Foreign Language Film
- Pharaoh (dir. Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1966) - Nominee, Foreign Language Film
- Knife in the Water (dir. Roman Polanski, 1963) - Nominee, Foreign Language Film
OTHER POLISH 2007 ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINATIONS:
CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Janusz Kaminski, for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
SHORT FILM (ANIMATED):
Madame Tutli-Putli, dir. Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski
Peter and the Wolf, dir. Suzie Templeton, Se-Ma-For Studio, Lodz & BreakThru Films, UK
>>>THE BOOK ON KATYN