Katyn - Post Mortem

Andrzej Wajda – one of, if not the most renowned Polish filmmakers who in 2000 was presented with an honorary Oscar for his outstanding contribution to world cinema is filming his latest epic.


Titled "Post Mortem" the film is a story about the Katyn massacre, the mass execution of Polish citizens ordered by the Soviet authorities in 1940. In 1943, mass graves were discovered at Katyn forest by the German army but the Soviet Union continued to deny responsibility for the massacre until 1990. Only then did the Russians admit that the Soviet secret police had in fact committed the crime and killed over 22,000 Polish soldiers and intellectuals.

Andrzej Wajda has been considering making a movie about Katyn for a long time. The project is of particular significance to Wajda since it is partly autobiographical. Wajda’s father – captain Jakub Wajda – was one of the officers murdered by the Soviets in Katyn. But the movie is not going to deal directly with the crime but rather with a lie about the true perpetrators and a cover-up by the Soviet and Communist authorities. It will tell a story from the point of view of women – mothers, wives and daughters of Polish officers – who are waiting for their men to come back home.

The film will be officially released on the 17th of September 2007 – precisely on the day when the Red Army invaded Poland in 1939.



Katyn Massacre
Graphic photo gallery of mass graves
This post contains pics of the production