OVP: Katyn (2007)

Film: Katyn (2007)
Stars: Andrzej Chyra, Artur Zmijewski, Maja Ostaszewska, Wikotria Gasiewska, Maja Komorowska, Danuta Stenka
Director: Andrzej Wajda
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Foreign Language Film-Poland)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Reviewing films with touchy subject matter is always a weird area, but it's particularly difficult when the director making the film has first-hand knowledge of the touchy subject.  This is the case with Katyn, a 2007 Best Foreign Language film nominee directed by the legendary Polish director Andrzej Wajda.  Wajda's film, about the infamous Katyn massacre, is especially personal for the director since his father was killed in the Katyn massacre when Wajda was just fourteen years old.  As a result, it's weird to sort of critique the styling of the film and the like because in many ways the film occasionally feels like the director is trying to put his emotions of this troubling time onto the screen, which is the goal of many directors but because so much of this feels like history, it's hard not to realize the connections and perhaps the gaps in emotion of the characters are in fact the gaps in emotion of the director.  I might be projecting too much, but the film, which I didn't love, feels so personal that it feels especially cruel to give it a standard-fare treatment of reviewing objectively, knowing what the director went through.  So I wanted to acknowledge that awkwardness and applaud Wajda for his telling of this story that clearly carries an enormous mountain of personal feeling before I begin to look at his film solely as a work of art and not an admirable expression of his loss.

(Spoilers Ahead) The problem with the film, though, is that it doesn't quite work narratively.  The story, of the Katyn Massacre and later the coverup perpetrated by the Soviets (who blamed the Nazis even though it was carried out by the Soviets), is a riveting tale, and on occasion we get a very fascinating looking movie out of the situation.  There's a terrific pair of scenes featuring Danuta Stenka as a high-ranking general's wife, when she is forced into imprisonment for not acknowledging that the Nazis killed her husband.  It's extremely well-acted by Stenka, who shows few cards in her tightly-wound character, making her break even harsher later on in the film.  There's also a scene late in the movie where an officer who was spared named Jerzy (Chyra) gets drunk and tells everyone that they know this is a lie perpetrated by the Soviets, and that they should know better.  When he realizes that he will be forced to live a lie and work for the men who killed his brothers-in-arms, he shoots himself in the head in a "whoa!" sort of moment.

The film, though, is littered with two few of these sorts of vignettes, and mostly it gets less well-worn scenes.  The film is trying to tie together all of the experiences, but it doesn't do this in a proper way that makes you feel a cohesive narrative other than the Soviets were terrible, which isn't really something you can base a complicated film off of.  The movie does attempt so many interesting takes on war, particularly the effects it has on the women that are left behind, waiting for news and for a letter that will change their lives, but the film doesn't have enough structure and frequently we get a character recalled late in the film that we thought had disappeared.  The movie doesn't establish who is the character we need to keep track of, and there's too many for it to play well in that regard (it doesn't have the cohesiveness of say a Mike Leigh film where the principle protagonist isn't immediately evident).  It's the sort of film that plays better on repeat viewing, but I don't think you should have to see a film twice to understand its narrative (perhaps to recall the clues of a late-breaking twist, but that's a sign of a tightly wound script, which this isn't).

So I'm going to go with three stars (initially I thought I would go with two).  The sum of the parts of this film are not great (the script is too loose, the acting too mixed, the message unclear), but the ambitions and the select moments where it works are too good not to at least recommend it.  I suggest it being one where you're wide awake and willing to pay close attention if you do catch it, and if you don't, at least make a point of reading about the Katyn Massacre so that you aren't unfamiliar with this historical tragedy.