第二次世界大戦中、ソ連の秘密警察によってポーランド軍将校が虐殺された「カティンの森事件」を、ポーランドの巨匠アンジェイ・ワイダ監督が映画化した問題作。長い間明らかにされてこなかった同事件の真相を、ソ連の捕虜となった将校たちと、彼らの帰還を待ちわびる家族たちの姿を通して描く。父親を事件で殺された過去を持つワイダ監督が歴史の闇に迫った本作は、第80回アカデミー賞外国語映画賞ノミネートをはじめ、世界各地の映画祭で高く評価された。
製作費: $5,600,000 (8億円)
興行収入: $14,768,451 (22億円)
推定収支: $9,168,451 (14億円)
※製作費・興行収入はTMDBのデータを参照しています。収支は(興行収入 - 製作費)で算出したFindKey独自の推定値であり、広告宣伝費や諸経費は含まれません (1ドル=150円換算)。
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with the Nazis now dominant in this theatre of the war, they discover mass graves at Katyn which they blame of the now withdrawn Russian forces. Exhuming what is left of the bodies, they carry out "thorough" autopsies and identify many of the murdered men via loudspeakers to their loved ones living in dread that their husbands, fathers and sons would be named. By 1945, the battle had swung the other way and it'd become the task of the Soviet forces to reveal the true extent of the extermination of some 22,000 Polish officers, but with each side having consistently accused the other for the killings, it proves nigh on impossible to know just who was behind these crimes. What are the chances that this family will ever meet again? This is very clearly a topic close to the heart of Andrzej Wajda and by interweaving a poignant familial story with some truly ghastly archive footage of some of the real discoveries at Katyn, it begins to quite scientifically establish just which of these militaristic regimes was behind not only these executions but of just what happened to anyone on their own side who protested or attempted to disobey. It also illustrates something of the psychological trauma faced by both those imprisoned and those awaiting news; the senses of fear and dejection - and all amidst a convincingly presented production that captures the imagery of war and it's concomitant poverty and horror potently. It's a grim watch, made more so by a total absence of hope throughout and it is quite a compelling critique of mankind's ability to be cruel, truly cruel.
