Katyn 2007

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: It is filmed with simplicity, a purity of intent. Read more

Joshua Katzman, Chicago Reader: Andrzej Wajda has spent much of his long career dramatizing major events in Polish history, and this poignant feature depicts the circumstances surrounding the Soviet Union's massacre of thousands of Polish officers in the spring of 1940. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: Has sweep and conviction and, most rewardingly, a long-overdue revelation of historical truth. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: A gritty political thriller, with a laser-like focus on those moments when Poland was undone by mounting circumstance. Read more

Boston Globe: The great filmmaker's urge to show generations of his countrymen what they were told not to think about is what moves him, and while "Katyn" rises above didacticism, you can feel the director keeping his emotions in check throughout. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The great Polish director Andrzej Wajda musters the power of classical filmmaking and personal emotional investment 
to dramatize a stunning atrocity long covered up. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: A stunning, epic film. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: As a portrait of hell on earth, Katyń deserves to be seen by anyone with a feeling for history, however horrifying it may be. Actually, it puts just about every other horror movie to shame. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: [Director] Wajda has brought some small measure of rest to their names, to Poland, and to history. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: A richly absorbing and intensely painful drama with a tremendous, mostly female cast. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Wajda's intensity and passion, as well as his intelligence and craft, are unmistakable from the very first sequence. Virtually from the first shot. Read more

James Adams, Globe and Mail: Katyn is remarkably concise and (if one may say this about a cinematic commemoration of mass murder) elegant. Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: The principal success of Wajda's stately, widescreen and exquisitely shot film lies in its sober attempt to mirror the fragmented truth of a genocide. Read more

Leslie Felperin, Variety: This plays almost like an academic master class, meticulously exploring the event's ramifications but only catching full fire at the end. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: While never less than fascinating, Katyn alternates between scenes of tremendous power and sequences most kindly described as dutiful. It's as if the artist is never certain whether he is making this movie for himself, his father, or the entire nation. Read more