Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

Katyn Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 18, 2010

Poland's Official Submission to the Best Foreign Language Film Category of the 80th Annual Academy Awards, Andrzej Wajda's "Katyn" (2007), arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Artificial Eye. The supplemental features on the disc include an interview with director Andrzej Wajda, making of, and trailers. With optional English subtitles. Region-Free.

The end

In 1940, approximately 15 000 to 22 000 Polish officers and intellectuals were arrested by the Soviets and transported to the Katyn forest where they were executed. Then, their bodies were dumped into mass graves. Later on, when the Nazis entered Poland, the mass graves were discovered and accusations started flying around. The Soviets blamed the Nazis for the killings. The Nazis blamed the Soviets.

After Hitler's death and the formation of the Eastern Bloc, the Katyn massacre was forgotten. The Soviets made sure that all official records pointing to NKVD's (the Soviet Secret Police) involvement with the massacre were destroyed. PUWP (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza), the Polish Communist Party, which governed Poland from 1948 to 1989, also refused to follow up on the Nazi reports. For awhile, all was good.

Everything changed in 1990. The Soviets finally acknowledged that NKVD was responsible for the killings, but did not classify them as war crimes. As a result, the then-current Polish government, led by Lech Walesa, the notorious dissident turned Polish President, was unable to prosecute those who ordered them.

Director Andrzej Waida's father, Jakub Wajda, was one of the officers executed in the Katyn forest. For years, Wajda and his family knew that the Soviets were responsible for the mass executions while most everyone else in Poland believed that it was the Nazis that committed them. When Solidarity, the influential non-communist union that would eventually oust the PUWP was formed, Wajda became one of its most prominent backers. He also became an important target for the communists. When in 1981 Wajda's Man of Iron won the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, they immediately shut down his production company.

For many Poles living in Poland and around the world, Katyn is more than a film recreating a tragic event. It is a validation for a piece of history which they were taught to forget. On the other hand, Katyn also feels like a confession, a difficult and genuinely disturbing one, by a man who found the courage to share with his countrymen what had tormented his soul for years.

While I was watching Katyn, I thought about Wajda and what must have felt like to experience what he did during the years. Like the Polish director, I grew up on the other side of the Iron Curtain and know well how dangerous it was to question the Soviet "liberators" and their puppets, their truths, their history. If one wanted to live, one had to remain silent. Wajda questioned them through his films, which is why I think he kept his sanity and lived.

In Katyn, the events leading to the massacre in the Katyn forest are seen through the eyes of a number of different characters. One is a Polish officer, Andrzej (Artur Zmijewski), who describes in a diary everything he sees during his final hours. Another is his friend, Lt. Jerzy (Andrzej Chyra), who cannot come to terms with the fact that his days are probably numbered. Then there is Andrzej’s wife, Anna (Maya Ostaszewska), who refuses to believe that her husband might have been executed. There are also people who Andrzej, Lt. Jerzy and Anna meet with stories of their own.

As it is the case with most of Wajda's films, Katyn contains plenty of raw documentary footage. A lot of it is very disturbing, showing the mass graves where the bodies of the Polish officers were placed, German and then Soviet soldiers observing exhumed remains, etc. On the other hand, Katyn is a beautifully lensed film, one where color and light are used with an incredible sense of elegance and finesse.

In 2008, Katyn was nominated for Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. During the same year, the film also won seven Eagle Awards, including Best Film, Best Supporting Actress (Danuta Stenka), Best Cinematography (Pawel Edelman), and Best Film Score (Krzysztof Penderecki), at the Polish Film Awards.

Katyn Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Andrzej Waida's Katyn arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Artificial Eye.

Artificial Eye released Katyn on SDVD approximately six months ago, but the image was cropped to 1.78:1. For the Blu-ray release, the distributors have secured a 2.35:1 transfer that looks absolutely fabulous. Fine object detail is striking, clarity pleasing and contrast levels consistent throughout the entire film. The color-scheme is also very impressive. For example, the light blues and greens Katyn is saturated with look fresh and very strong. Edge- enhancement and macroblocking are never an issue of concern. I also did not detect any heavy digital artifacts or ringing to report in this review. There is no background flickering or banding either. There are only a couple of scenes where I detected some extremely mild noise creeping in. Finally, I did not spot any disturbing flecks, scratches, debris, or cuts to report in this review. All in all, director Wajda's Katyn looks very impressive on Blu-ray, and I cannot recommend it highly enough to you. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no forced PAL content preceding the disc's main menu).

Katyn Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: Polish/Russian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Polish/Russian Dolby Digital 5.1. For the record, Artificial Eyr have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.

The Polish/Russian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is very strong. The surround channels are not overly active, but when they are, they are very effective; the bass is strong; the high frequencies are not overdone. Award-winning composer Krzysztof Penderecki's score benefits greatly from the loseless audio -- the low strings, in particular, are incredibly rich. The dialog is clean, crisp and easy to follow. I also did not notice any balance issues with the music score to report in this review. I did not detect any disturbing pops, cracks, or hiss either.

The Polish/Russian Dolby Digital 5.1 track is, as expected, inferior. During a number of key scenes, for example, the music sounds flat and lifeless. Generally speaking, the dialog remains clean and easy to follow.

Katyn Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Note: All of the supplemental features on this disc are in PAL. Therefore, if you reside in North America, or another region where PAL is not supported, you must have a Region-Free player capable of converting PAL to NTSC, or a TV set capable of receiving native PAL data, in order to view them.

Interview - a long and very informative interview with director Wajda in which he talks about his desire to shoot Katyn in Poland, not abroad; what the Katyn massacre meant to him and his family; the type of message he wanted to deliver with the film; its production history; etc. In Polish, with imposed English subtitles. (50 min)

Making of - a standard featurette following director Wajda and his crew during the shooting of Katyn. In Polish, with imposed English subtitles. (27 min).

Trailer - the original theatrical trailer for the film. In Polish, with imposed English subtitles. (2 min).

Artificial Eye trailers - trailers for Waltz with Bashir, Chungking Express, Hidden, and Lou Reed's Berlin.

Katyn Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Katyn is a powerful, exceptionally moving and terrifically acted film directed by legendary Polish director Andrzej Wajda. The Blu-ray disc herein reviewed, courtesy of British distributors Artificial Eye, looks and sounds great. It also contains a long and very informative interview with the Polish director. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.