Kinoblog

I’m getting a lot of visitors in search of reviews of Andrzej Wajda’s new film Katyń, so I thought I’d create a separate post offering annotated links – I’ll update this over the next few days as more start to appear.

• First-hand account of the Warsaw premiere by Loxodonta (Defending Defense blog, 18 September 2007);
• Very brief comments by ‘H-e-l-e-n-a‘ and ‘wild-chick‘ on the IMDB message board after attending screenings;
• BBC News interview with Andrzej Wajda by Brian Hanrahan;
• Six-minute English-language Polish Radio item about the film (in MP3 format, includes soundtrack excerpts and interviews with Wajda, historians and audience members);
• Article by Aleksander Kropiwnicki (Polish Radio, 21 September 2007) that sets the film against the still ongoing controversy between Poland and Russia;
• Context-setting article by Ewa Thompson in the Washington Times that briefly mentions the film;
• Interview with Wajda (in English) by Jan Cienski, Financial Times, 14 September 2007
• The film’s IMDB entry and official website (the latter in Polish only);
• The trailer, with English subtitles, courtesy of ‘chortee26’ and YouTube;
• High-quality image of the Polish poster
• Wikipedia provides detailed historical background, and mentions Wajda’s film in a supplementary paragraph about Katyń-inspired art;

Although I recently interviewed Wajda himself on the subject (for a forthcoming issue of Sight & Sound), I haven’t had a chance to see the film yet, and I’m hearing conflicting rumours about its artistic merits. But there’s no question that this is the highest-profile Polish film in years, and its importance in terms of cathartic subject matter can hardly be overstated.

UPDATE: Not too surprisingly, Katyń is Poland’s submission for the Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination – Wajda had previously made the final shortlist with Land of Promise (Ziemia obiecana, 1975), The Young Ladies of Wilko (Panny z Wilka, 1979) and Man of Iron (Człowiek z żelaza, 1981). None of these films actually won, but Wajda was awarded a lifetime achievement Oscar in 2000. The Czechs and Hungarians have also announced their selections – the Czechs playing safe with Jiří Menzel’s long-awaited I Served The King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále) and the Hungarians decidedly not with György Pálfi’s memorably revolting but undeniably original Taxidermia.