At Tribeca: Katyn

Katyn
Dir. Andrzej Wajda
Reviewed by Cullen Gallagher

Legendary Polish director Andrzej Wajda’s latest film, Katyn, carries a large political weight because of its controversial story. After Hitler and Stalin signed a non-aggression pact in 1939, the Soviets invaded Poland and transported 12,000 military officers back to Russia where they were executed and dumped in a mass grave in the Katyn forest. Eventually, the Soviets blamed the mass murder on the Nazis, denying any involvement in the incident. So controversial was the subject that citizens were forbidden to speak of it, and it wasn’t until after the fall of the Soviet Union that the historical truth was recognized. And Katyn is the first film made on the subject.

As impressive as this contextualization is, the film definitely feels weighed down by this history-in-the-making aspect. The straight-faced approach to drama feels terrifyingly realistic, yet our empathy for the characters rarely goes deeper than a general concern for the innocent victims of war. The real highlight of the film is Krzysztof Penderecki’s magnificent score (his influence can be heard all over Jonny Greenwood’s music for There Will Be Blood), which often works its discordant melodies just beneath the surface of the film, subtly affecting the mood and quietly amplifying the overall sense of horror. For all its embracing of dissonance, there is something unexpectedly reticent and shy about Penderecki’s score, which makes it all the more commendable and effective.

No U.S. distributor. Screens Tuesday, April 29 at 6pm; Wednesday, April 30 at 6:45pm; Friday, May 2 at 12pm; Sunday, May 4 at 2:30pm