This is my first Wadja film, who I might be ashamed to say I never even heard of until the Criterion Collection announced their upcoming Danton DVD. Seeing Katyn, I was initially somewhat surprised at how standard the film was. It is very similar in tone and appearance to Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. It does do a few interesting things though. The film follows several different stories, all of them stemming from the Polish prisoner-of-war Andrej. The cinematography is desaturated and browned slightly for an older, gritty look that makes the periodic leaps into archival film stock of the events at Katyn Forest feel like less of a separation in time. The acting is competent throughout, but I don’t think that anything necessarily stands out exceptionally. The film is difficult to write about because it is absolutely a ‘good’ film, but it doesn’t really good anything really interesting or really wrong. It’s a well-made historical document about an event that I was unaware of, and it compellingly brought it to my attention.
As a film by a supposed ‘auteur’ I was underwhelmed because of how objective and textbook it seemed to be. The most interesting thing about the film is its inclusion of very Catholic sensibilities, most notably the film’s final line being the Lord’s Prayer by a succession of men being offed one after another, closing on a shot of a fist-clenched rosary. It was strange and refreshing to see a film set in Europe in the 1940s, about an event in which thousands of innocents were killed, and for the religious bent to be Christian. The film doesn’t feel religious, though; it is definitely about the killing and repressed standards of living in wartime.
Other interesting moments involve small stories such as the young guy who ripped down a Stalin poster and was subsequently chased by Soviet soldiers until he had to run into oncoming traffic and was killed by a car. The Soviets were not certain to kill or even detain this boy, but I still viewed the circumstance as a murder. The ultimate force, then, was their threats, and not necessarily their actions.
I’m certainly gald that I saw Katyn, but it doesn’t make me want to seek out more Wadja. The slaughter of Katyn Forest is devastating and important for everyone to know about, but this film does aim to progress the genre.