Andrzej Wajda (Ashes and Diamonds), the octogenarian master of Polish cinema, sets the stage for the tragedy of a nation caught in a conflict of forces of destiny and evil immeasurably greater than itself.

A towering monument to the exposure of one of the darkest secrets of the Soviet era, the Katyn massacre of 1940. One of the best films of one of the best directors in the history of cinema.

I'm not sure I've ever seen a war film wherein the Nazis and the Soviets actually tried to hold the other accountable for some of the atrocities in Poland, so this film serves as quite an eye-opener. It's September 1939 and the ordinary Polish citizenry didn't know where to turn. Their cities are being bombed to smithereens and what's left of their armed forces is being easily overwhelmed by their invaders. Initially, it is only the officers who are being detained, with the private soldiers and the families being left largely to their own devices. Gradually, though, it becomes clear that this is but an holding operation whilst the prison trains were readied to convey these men to prison camps in the East. "Anna" (Maja Ostaszewska) finds herself in such a predicament when she, and their daughter "Nika", become separated from her husband "Capt. Andrzej" (Artur Zmijewski). At this stage in the conflict, it might have been possible for her to move to the zone occupied by the German military where he parents lived in Krakow, but after being refused a licence three times she becomes more acutely aware of the dangers as she has to rely on a kindly Russian officer to make it to what she hopes will be somewhere marginally safer. In 1943, with the Nazis now dominant in this theatre of the war, they discover mass graves at Katyn which they blame of the now withdrawn Russian forces. Exhumi…

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