present the film
based on Andrzej
Mularczyk's novel Post Mortem..
Screenplay by
Starring
as Major Popov
And
Sound
Makeup
Costume Designer
Uniforms and Military Items by
Set Designer
Interior Designer
Photography of
the September 1 939 sequence by
Edited by
Production Manager
Executive Producer
Producer
Music
Director of Photography
Directed by
September 1 7, 1 939
Where to, folks?!
There are Germans behind us!
The Soviets have entered!
Where are you going?
Turn back!
The Russkies have entered!
Faster!
Germans are behind us...
Mrs. Anna! Mrs. Anna!
Where to?
I'm looking for my husband.
Where are they?
You don't know?
The Soviets attacked at dawn.
My husband told me to return
to Cracow immediately.
My husband knows
what's he talking about.
- Madam...
- They must know that we're safe.
Why jeopardize yourself and the kid?
Be reasonable.
- Madame, please.
- Start.
Nika!
Where are you?!
My God, Nika!
Nika...
Come, doggie.
Nothing to be scared of.
I told you to stick with me!
He's alone and scared.
Let's take him along.
We can't. We're in a hurry.
He may be waiting for his master.
Excuse me, do you
know where the 8th
- Cracow Uhlan Regiment is?
- The uhlans are no more.
And the officers?
Where's the staff?
There's a hospital
in the church.
They may know something.
Ask them.
- Is dad there?
- I don't know. We'll see.
In nomine Patris, et Filii,
et Spiritus Sancti...
- Mom, the coat.
- What coat?
Dad's coat.
I can tell by the blue ribbon.
Hold this.
- What's happening?
- The President's address!
The president's address!
Come!
... until today has
withstood the onslaught
of the overwhelming
German forces,
our eastern neighbor
has invaded our lands in violation
of covenants, and the immutable
principles of morality.
Warsaw as the capital
is no more!
- Who's that?
- Molotov, Soviet Foreign Minister.
- The Soviets are everywhere.
- Where are the officers?
The POW's are at the station
if they're there.
- They were to be transported to Russia.
- Thank you. Hurry up Niki.
- You can leave her with me.
- I want to come along.
Wait here.
I'll be back with daddy.
I have another bicycle.
Take this for your husband.
- I'll be right back.
- Grzes, see the lady off.
Take the bicycle
and leave it there.
September 1 7, 1 939
The Bolsheviks have entered.
Surrounded by Soviet tanks,
we surrender weapons.
They take us for POW's
though there was no war with them.
They have separated the officers
and let the soldiers go home,
but have retained us, the officers.
I'll try to write from time to time
to let you know
what happen to me
if I died and didn't return.
Maybe this notebook
will be sent to you.
- They're dividing us.
- Wait a minute.
What're you doing?
I've decided to describe
everything I've seen here
day by day.
The Germans take our soldiers,
the Soviets, our officers.
Makes no difference.
Captivity is captivity.
No honor to an officer.
- I see only the dark side.
- Meaning?
Moscow hasn't signed
the Geneva Convention.
How long do you think
their friendship will last?
Hitler declared
a 1 000-year-old Reich
and communism is forever.
Greetings to the representatives
of the German Army.
First Lieutenant of the NKVD Kozlov.
A thousand years at least.
- You never lose your sense of humor.
- My common sense rather.
- How goes it, comrades?
- Fine.
Their alliance won't last a year,
which means they'll
need us very badly.
Who?
One transport to Smolensk,
the second, to Belgorod,
and the third to Kharkov.
- Anna? Your wife?
- Why, She's in Cracow.
What're you doing here, Anna?
Why aren't you in Cracow?
- Where's Nika?
- Andrzej...
- Andrzej, I thought...
- Where's Nika?
You'll see her
in the presbytery.
What presbytery?
What presbytery?
Nearby. I have another
bicycle for you. Just change.
They're not watching closely.
I got thru with no problem.
What do you mean?
I want you to be with us,
to take care of me
and our daughter.
Anna, listen to me...
You're a wife of a Polish officer.
This conversation is pointless.
Pointless? I've traveled across
half of Poland to you!
I'm bound by my military pledge.
You swore to me...
before God.
Till death do us part,
you've forgotten?
I swore to them too.
You just don't love us.
- By God, Anna, calm down.
- I beg you...
I beg you, Andrzej...
No talking to the prisoner!
- Andrzej.
- All will be well.
- Daddy!
- Niki.
Don't go away!
Take her.
- Take her away.
- Come, darling.
Take care.
Nika!
Daddy!
Daddy!
Daddy!
THE YOUNGEST CAVALRY CAPTAIN...
Maybe the navy blue
would be better?
No, thank you, my dear.
I thought you were working.
I found an old paper
with Andrzej's photo
when he was the youngest
cavalry captain in the Polish Army.
Our son lives. He's in captivity,
but he lives.
Thank you.
- Will you have a speech today?
- Not today.
We have to listen to the lecture
of that SS officer... Mller?
- I told you.
- We need to buy a new jacket.
Mller. Doctor Mller.
Does he have
a scientific degree,
- that Mller?
- Yes. He calls himself
police government adviser.
Dr. Mller.
Jan...
...you don't want to go there?
Out of the question.
We all must be there.
We can't leave
the chancellor alone.
The Germans must believe
that we are of one mind
when it comes to the independence
of the university.
Cracow, Nov. 6, 1 939
German Occupation Zone
Hello... hello.
Yes, Chancellor.
Hello...
Gentlemen,
We have been informed
that, at the university,
you start classes, seminars
and exams without our consent.
You don't seem to realize
the plight you're in.
This kind of conduct
is a hostile act
against Germany.
In fact the university was always
a major hotbed of scientific struggle
against Germany, the center
of anti-German propaganda.
The university is closed.
You all are under arrest.
You'll go to a labor camp
where you'll have enough time
to think over your behavior until now.
- Excuse me...
- Any discussion is useless.
I categorically protest
on behalf of the university.
Comments are forbidden.
Whoever will try to disobey
orders will be shot.
Chancellor, you go first.
November 1 939
Camp in Kozielsk, USSR.
Everybody fled: police stations,
high command. I know only one word:
- treason.
- Easy to judge others
- when you didn't fight.
- You didn't give me any weapon.
The camp does not justify
a breach of rules and conduct.
- It's a fitting term: treason!
- Soviet propaganda, lieutenant!
- The truth is quite different.
- Look for it in Romania,
- where our C. -in-C. has fled.
- Who's guilty
that we were unprepared?
History will judge
the guilty of the disaster.
Rehearsed platitudes, those, I think
though I have fewer stars than you.
- I'm an engineer, I design planes.
- The uniform is an honor.
- The Polish uniform.
- Shove the honor. I'd rather fight!
Don't jump at each other's throat.
Here? Before the Soviets?
We still take part
in the war.
It's all over with us.
Try to find peace with this,
lieutenant.
November 1 939
Soviet Occupation Zone
The Soviet Red Army
is your only friend.
Any further resistance is
pointless.
The Soviet Red Army
is your only friend.
Only she will liberate
the Polish nation from the war.
So that you could
start living in peace.
I can't find it.
Silence the baby.
- Name?
- Anna.
Wife of a cavalry captain,
born in Cracow in 1 91 0,
daughter Nika.
This checks out. Everything's correct.
So, what is it, citizen?
I already applied twice for travel
documents to Poland...
the General-Gouverenment, that is.
To my family.
Mussolini envies us already.
That's what is in our files.
And you were refused twice.
So what now?
I've applied again.
Refused!
Next one!
I used to live in Cracow before
the war. My family lives there.
She's a citizen of the General-
Gouvernement. Can she return there?
No!
Let me return to Krakow, please.
You can return of course,
but you cannot leave from here.
It's clear in black and white that
your husband is held
in captivity. Don't you want to
wait till he returns? It's no good.
He'll be released and
no one will welcome him.
Name?
Cracow,
December 24, 1 939
Where's Ewa?
Outside, looking
for the first star.
She wanted to look from here,
but it's the blackout...
Where's the plate for
an unexpected guest?
I put it over here
a moment ago.
This one is for the General.
Good.
Sir, I report that the first
star has been sighted.
Thank you.
Gentlemen...
I have no doubts
that in a year's time
we'll reminisce about our
present plight with a smile.
None of us thought that
the service prepared us
only for immediate victories. Defeat
is also part of the soldier's lot...
...and captivity,
but also a return home
to resume fighting.
You don't lay down your arms before
an enemy but before yourself.
So it's only up to you if you
remain soldiers or losers.
A few words to those,
who, not career officers,
share our lot
and are the majority here,
as I see scientists, teachers,
lawyers...
I even see a painter.
You must endure,
because there won't be a free
Poland without you.
The aim for us, ordinary
soldiers, is to put Poland
again on the map of Europe.
Yet you'll have to make
that Poland come true in Europe.
I wish you as well as myself
to return home safe and sound.
To meet our nearest and dearest
as soon as possible.
God is born on earth,
powers tremble,
Lord bereft of
heav'nly splendor.
Lustrous flames fade,
fires dissemble,
Infinite unending Wonder!
Scorned yet clothed
in radiant glory,
Mortal though
He is Lord Jesus,
Thus the Word
became the flesh,
Dwelling without end
among us.
I wonder if they'll let us go.
You can stay here as long
as necessary.
Tadek will sure stay with
his uncle and aunt in Miechowo,
while Kazimierz is in Starobielsk...
I've brought a samovar.
This is good medicine.
It will help.
Thank you.
Mrs. Anna,
come to me for
a moment, please.
Go. I'll watch over Nika.
Please.
The tea must've gotten cold.
Unfortunately, it has.
Listen to me, Anna.
Please don't get me wrong.
I have your lot and that
of your sister at heart.
We talked about it, Captain.
That's absolutely impossible.
Yes, but the situation
has changed.
You were afraid I'd seize the
opportunity if you said yes.
Soon I'm off to
the Finnish front.
It's not the way there like they say.
I've misgivings that I won't come back.
You cannot know about that.
Nobody can.
Maybe so.
As it happens,
we know what
we cannot know.
If you marry me, then without
any consequences between us,
as I'm leaving before long.
If I'm killed, you as the wife
of a Red Army officer
will find it easier to save
yourself and your daughter.
I have a husband.
I won't marry you.
You a wife of a Polish officer.
It spells death.
I told you
I have a husband!
- They are no more.
- What're you talking about?
I have letters from Andrzej,
who lives and will return.
Anna...
I know I don't
deserve your trust.
We just live
under the same roof.
I don't want anything for myself.
I'll tell you what
I've no right to say.
Wives of Polish
officers will go first.
Once, I wasn't able
to save my own family,
but I'd like to rescue
you and your daughter.
Please trust me.
Please.
- Take two.
- Yes, sir.
Let's go quick!
Nika!
- Where's my mommy?
- Quiet, Nika.
Open up!
Elzbieta Aleksandrowna?
Born in Krakow in 1 909?
The wife of the Polish Army
officer Kazimierz Ignatowicz?
Pack your things.
Jesus...
What happened?
Fire?
What're you doing here?
And you?
- I report, Comrade Captain.
- I live here.
- We've come to arrest...
- Who?
Who have you
come to arrest? Me?
No.
Here's a warrant.
Anna Aleksandrowna,
born May, 2, 1 91 0...
wife of the Polish
officer Andrzej...
has a daughter Weronika.
No such person lives here.
- How come?
- No such person has lived here.
For over a year.
I've lived here... alone.
- So we've come too late?
- Most likely.
Search somewhere else.
We certainly will.
Why is the girl crying?
Don't cry! Don't you want
to see your daddy? Be quick!
You're going
to your husband.
Niki.
Mommy,
not a peep from me.
I know, dear.
I know.
- Thank you.
- You must run away.
They'll be right back.
Thank you.
The German High Command
announces:
The situation near
Narvik hasn't changed.
German planes attacked
British marching columns
with MG fire and dispersed them.
Cracow,
Spring of 1 940
A British cruiser was
hit with a bomb...
My dear God...
You're here.
Are you happy, Granny,
we'll be living with you?
I am.
I'm happy...
my darling.
- Don't you have dolls, Grandma?
- Well, I didn't have a daughter.
This is your dad's teddy bear.
It was worst on the border.
I spent all my money and threw
in the ring from Andrzej to boot.
When was the last time
he wrote you?
In March. Everything
crossed out by the censor.
I'll show you.
Bring me the bag, Nika.
Any news from Father?
They let
- them write from Sachsenhausen?
- He writes in a way
not to provoke the censor.
That he's fine,
they feed them well,
and he'll be back soon.
- And you don't believe it?
- No...
Yes.
- I believe my misgivings.
- What do they tell you?
They've been
treating us too well.
Let us celebrate Xmas.
It's suspicious.
Don't tell anybody.
That 2nd lieutenant
tried to hang himself again.
The men are in bad shape.
We have to set an example.
How long?
England and France
will stand up for us.
They can't leave 20,000
officers behind the front line.
Cannons or tanks
can be rebuilt,
but a trained soldier
is irreplaceable.
I just hope it won't
cross the tovarishchi's minds.
Chin up, lieutenant.
You don't look well recently.
It's my kidneys
and I get shivers.
Here's a present for you.
- How come? And you?
- I have another.
Mother prepared me for the war
as if it were school.
This is her handwriting.
My name.
Thank you.
I'll return it in a few days.
No need.
I really have another.
Mom,
Mr. Wieslaw's
brought a package for you.
- Hello, Madam.
- Hello.
It's from Germany.
You have to sign the receipt.
One moment. Here.
Thank you.
- Please wait.
- Not this time, Madam.
Please forgive me.
Read, please.
The Sachsenhausen camp
commander
regrets to inform you that
on March 4, 1 940,
Prof. Jan died in jail of
an untreated cardiac defect.
- Jesus' holy name be praised.
- For ever and ever.
- Here.
- Thank you.
What's that list?
The names of all
they transport away.
I have everybody from
the 1 st transport on April 3.
Men are easy to lose, but their families
and the army are waiting for them...
- As they say, diaries don't burn.
- Buttons...
That's what will be left of us.
I wonder where they send us?
- To neutral countries maybe.
- Where did you hear that?
We were vaccinated against typhus.
With the Soviets that means
- we're off on a long journej.
- Attention!
I'm reading
the following names...
They've read your name.
Your things and off.
I'm staying.
Don't worry, Jerzy.
This is not the last transport.
You'll come on the next one
and I'll get good
lodgings ready.
Zygmunt Szymkiewicz, major doctor,
a letter from a Health Dept.
Cracow,
April, 1 3, 1 943
Roman Zajaczkowski land engineer
His service papers were found.
Antoni Danda,
military rank unknown,
a Town Hall sec.,
a letter attached.
Dr. Henryk Peche,
captain, physician.
Ferdynand Marecki,
his student card
and a telegram attached.
Edmund Baszkowski
b. in Kalisz in 1 903,
lawyer.
Marian Dobrowolski,
lieutenant pilot,
engineer designer...
- Goniec Krakowski, please.
- I got the latest. Here.
Stanislaw Jakubowicz
lieutenant, no personal details.
Wladyslaw Deszczka,
cartographer,
b. March 2, 1 892.
Stanislaw Kaczmarek,
pilot, 2nd lieut.
His weapons license
and calling cards attached.
Piotr Martin
engineer.
An inocculation certificate
from Kozielsk attached.
Daszkiewicz, 2nd lieut.
ID attached.
- He isn't there?
- No.
One cannot lose
a husband and son.
Right.
My sonny.
He's not there.
But I don't understand why
he didn't hide or escape.
You told me
it was possible.
- Why didn't you persuade him?
- You know I tried.
- Why wasn't I there?
- You wouldn't've helped.
Andrzej paid the same
duty to the uniform, as Father,
- to the university.
- But he should've been rescued.
My son is necessary.
You think that
I don't know that?
That I don't feel it?
If he'd felt he was needed...
I don't know, maybe...
He wouldn't have left you,
the child, me...
Why do you speak
as if he were no more.
He's not on that list!
Do you hear?
But that accursed list has
the name of that Lieutenant Jerzy
- and the general, their commander.
- So what?
He's not there and that's that.
If he could save himself,
even all alone, he did because that's
what I feel. I feel that Andrzej lives.
It can't be that something
happened to him somewhere,
which I don't know.
He is part of me.
And no part of me has died.
Yes, yes...
A letter has come, Mom.
Official. From the Germans.
- Propaganda Abteilung...
- What can they want from you?
In connection with
the Katyn list.
They tell relatives
to come.
Let's go.
On behalf of our leader
Adolf Hitler,
I'd like to express my
heart-felt condolences
on account of the tragedy that
befell your husband, the General.
It's an unprecedented crime
committed by the Soviets
on Polish POW's in Katyn.
The Fhrer ordered to return
to you the Virtuti Militari cross.
Thank you.
Please see the statement
and next read it.
News spread very fast
of finding...
bodies of Polish officers,
including my husband's...
The wife of the General,
I'll pray for the Soviet
criminals to be punished...
The conversation
will be recorded.
I take it that everything
has been written out here.
Your questions
and my answers.
Exactly. Read it out
loud, please.
You can start now, please.
You can start now, please.
Read it!
Madam, you need this
statement as much as we do.
You wouldn't like to send your
daughter letters from Auschwitz?
Please come with me!
The daughter stays here.
Sit down!
- Don't you leave me here, Mom!
- Wait here.
Please.
Behind the front line
near Smolensk,
the Katyn Forest, the site
of a horrendous mass murder,
where the butchers of Kremlin
ordered executioners
to commit a bestial murder
on 1 2,000 Polish POW's,
officers and noncoms.
A German Medical Committee along with
a Polish forensic expert Dr. Praglowski
ascertained the typically Bolshevik
way, a shot in the back of the head.
The exit wound is in the forehead or in
the upper part of the victim's skull.
Father Jasinski is performing
exequies over the open mass graves.
A symbolic handful of dust from
the General-Gouvernement
is thrown over the graves.
All those Polish offcers were
murdered in the spring of '40.
There are many Polish
generals among the victims.
This bears out what fate
awaited all European nations
from the Bolshevik
murderous plague.
Yet with his heroic attitude, the
German soldier protects our continent.
To complete the list
of names given before
of the murdered
by the Bolsheviks...
Mom!
Mom!
... we give you further
names of the victims:
Wladyslaw Godziszewski,
lieutenant,
b. June 22, 1 895,
high school teacher.
Lucjan Gawronski,
captain,
Olgierd Druchowicz, major,
electrical engineer.
Cracow, Jan. 1 8, 1 945
- The hated Nazi flag hit the
cobblestones of the Krakow marketplace.
Thousands of hands tore into pieces
the symbol of German rule over
the ancient capital of Polish kings.
Mom, see who's arrived?
Our maid Stasia.
How elegant you look!
Stasia...
- So we've survived.
- Yes...
Sit down.
We worried about you.
Well, it was hard.
We had to hide.
My husband took to the forest.
He was in the People's Army.
- Could we help you?
- No, thank you.
It's quite different now.
My husband Edek
can do a great deal now.
Your things remained
here in the pantry,
a whole trunk.
Ewa, fetch it please.
Madam, I'd like...
You remember?
I'd like to return it.
I promised to keep it
and I did.
What have you
brought us?
Dad's saber...
Thank you very much.
- So I'll be going...
- Your trunk.
No, no, give it to the Red
Cross for the poor.
My husband was nominated
the Starosta of Piotrkow.
So I have to go.
I thought you decided
to stay on as a maid.
I didn't see the General's
wife throughout the whole war.
Now you are the lady.
Yes, Madam, please.
Dad!
- Andrzej.
- Dad!
Andrzej.
Nika...
She's grown.
Forgive her.
She's looking forward to
seeing Father.
I'm sorry
to have disappointed you.
- But your face...
- You recognize me?
You're Jerzy, a lieutenant
from my son's regiment.
Yes, a major now, but it's me.
But they said you were dead.
I saw the name and rank
- on the list everything...
- Yes, yes, but it's a mistake.
I live as you see.
Where's Andrzej?
Do you know my son's
whereabouts?
Unfortunately,
I saw him
in 1 940 last
when they took him
to another camp.
That means...
Nobody knows,
and nothing is certain.
So many mistakes.
You live...
Anna will be happy.
She'll be back soon.
I have some canned meat for you.
It can be of use...
Thank you.
Jerzy.
- Why, you are on the Katyn list.
- I know. I've come...
This is for you.
Thank you.
You live.
Where's Andrzej?
Do you know?
His name is not on the list.
- I'm in place for him.
- What do you mean?
The captain had a sweater
with my name.
Oh, God...
Mrs. Anna. It doesn't mean
a thing. You should have...
Hope?
I've been living hope for five years,
so don't you tell me about it.
You've come to tell me
that my husband is dead, yes?
- You want to tell me that he's dead...
- Yes.
He said that Andrzej is dead.
Mrs. Greta...
Soviets of the NKVD
are on the premises.
Have you seen them?
Calm down.
They'll take us away
when they find this.
They'll take us away anyway.
Hide all of this immediately.
What are you doing here?
Do you have an order?
I have an appointment
with the professor.
Sir, the man says he
has an appointment with you.
I don't remember.
You have a warrant, major?
You don't remember me?
Jerzy... How come you here?
In this uniform?
I came too late to Anders.
But for that, I would
be in London now.
I'm here in private, sir.
You know that I'm
on the Katyn list?
Forgive me, but I don't
know the list by heart.
Things with my name
were my commander's.
That's why I've come here.
I think that his family
would like to get them
before you pack them.
Have you found
an envelope with my name?
I don't remember.
How many names of your former
students could you have found here?
Dozens, sir.
This is...
the address of the captain's wife.
If you could find anything...
I know you don't trust me.
But it's not the point
that I've survived,
am in the new service,
in a new Poland, but you aren't.
That's not the point.
To you, this is just evidence,
but to her it may be relics.
Aha.
On the strength of the decision
of the Extraordinary State Committee
concerning the investigation
of the murder committed
by the German invaders,
a special commission was appointed
to ascertain the circumstances
of the crime committed on Polish
officer POW's in the Katyn Forest.
Each body underwent
detailed autopsy.
A shot in the back of the head,
the favorite way of killing
of Gestapo murderers.
Judging by autopsies, brains,
and clothes, we can determine
that the Polish POW's
were murdered not
earlier than in the fall of 1 94 1.
The Germans committed
the murder with utter cynicism,
which the bullet
wounds bear out.
That's how they shot the Poles.
Delegations of the 1 st
Polish Corps in the USSR
have come for the exequies.
HONOR TO THE FALLEN
During the ceremony,
the priest told the participants:
"May the shed Polish
blood be a foundation
of our revived free homeland. "
- What's the matter?
- It's a lie.
It's a lie. Do you hear?
Please come with me.
It's a lie.
Madam...
Where do you know me?
I received a commission
from the General before the war.
I was there a year ago.
Where?
In Katyn when the Soviets
sent us to the graves.
What were you doing
there?
Stalin needed us, officers
of the 1 st Corps, to testify
about the impartiality
of their investigation.
- And?
- We did.
It's a lie.
And you know it.
- They had eye-witnesses.
- Major...
The Soviets must lie to cover up
the crime, but you don't have to.
You mustn't.
I saw them...
pull out of the pits
those I was with in Kozielsk.
I watched in disbelief
that I lived,
whereas I should've
been there with them.
You should... major...
testify about the truth.
I could just as well
shoot myself in the head.
You salute murderers
as if they were victors.
Makes no difference
whether Soviets or Germans.
Nobody will resurrect
the dead anyway.
We have to survive, forgive.
We must live.
You're the same as they.
You may think differently,
but you do the same.
What does it matter
that you think differently?
The Katyn graves opened up
for the third time
to reveal to the world
the terrifying truth
about still another
German murder
committed on the Polish nation.
- Will you drink?
- Miss Krysia, pour one for the major.
- I'm cold after the service.
- They premiere a Soviet film in town.
- What?
- Haven't you heard?
A dozen thousand of our officers
were murdered in Katyn.
- What're you talking about?
- To the victory over those criminals.
Jerzy!
- What're you talking about, dammit?
- About the historical truth.
Miss Krysia,
vodka for everyone.
The whole world didn't know...
what to think about
that crime.
There were horrible
rumors that
no one knew who and how...
- But it's plain that...
- Stop it!
...it was the Germans in '41
murdered everyone shooting
in the back of the head.
Piss off. You're drunk.
- Miss Krysia.
- Don't pay.
I want to pay
in memory of them.
Get out of here.
You're drunk.
Look, the people can be silenced.
You don't know
what you're talking about.
That's why I'm talking!
You fool.
I don't know what I'm saying?
You all know the same.
AII.
And you, and you,
and you.
Get out of here!
The Katyn Forest blood
is calling to us out loud...
calling us to take a merciless...
revenge...
Not for a moment are we
allowed to forget
about the terrible
death of our brothers...
who were later dumped
into a common pit...
and next dragged out of the pit...
those jackals and hyenas.
POW's were murdered
in cold blood
calmly, systematically.
Dumped into a common pit,
professional officers,
engineers, doctors...
- What's your name?
- Lieutenant Klin.
You'll be a witness.
Take him. Quick!
Over 1 0,000 of Polish
intelligentsia,
whom the war dressed
in military uniforms.
Agnieszka, I was afraid
I'd never see you again.
News from the rising raised
doubts if anyone had survived.
I lucked up.
Thank God.
My sister said
you were looking for me.
I asked her to get in touch,
but she never came.
Nothing will change her
and she won't return to church.
You'll be disappointed in me.
I haven't come to pray.
I was there.
There?
Over the Katyn graves
in 1 943.
In my presence, this rosary was
pried out of your brother's hand.
You recognized him?
How?
By his service papers.
I didn't want him
to look so serious.
It was snapped when
he was appointed lieutenant.
He wasn't a professional officer,
but an engineer designer,
building a new sports plane.
He looks so glum,
rather than happy
as he usually was.
- May I?
- A pity I didn't have another photo.
I'll try to make
him look smiling.
But it's a very beautiful photo.
I wanted to ask
you if I could make a copy.
Yes?
- Go ahead.
- Thank you.
It didn't bring us luck.
It'll be ready tomorrow.
Please come tomorrow.
Excuse me.
Tadzio?
Aunt.
- Tadzio.
- Aunt Anna.
- Tadzio.
- Hello, Aunt.
God! What're you
doing here?
You've grown so tall
that I hardly recognize you.
And Ela?
Any news about mom?
None since they took her away.
I thought you...
No. No answer to so many
letters I sent.
You know about Father.
He's on the list.
Everything tallies:
the number, rank...
- Good bye...
- Good bye.
Where have you been?
With the aunt and uncle?
After they took Mom with Halinka,
I stayed with the uncle.
- There was nothing to return to.
- I worked in
a factory. When I turned 1 8
in the Kielce Province then.
- In Kielce or in the country?
- Neither.
Tadzio...
Thank you.
Come...
Come, Tadzio.
Mr. Wladyslaw, my nephew
has come to have his pictrue
- taken.
- Yes, sir.
What size photo?
A passport photo.
I read in the paper that
the Fine Arts Academy
is going to be opened.
If I start a new life...
Wonderful.
I like to draw.
Take a look, Aunt.
Mrs. Anna we again have
college students in Poland.
Exactly! And how clever.
Please follow me.
To the left.
My left, your right.
In high school,
students don't smoke, sir.
Sorry.
- You fought in the forest?
- Yes, but there's an amnesty.
I see that you
attended secret classes.
You should get credits
for the senior year
and try to get a high school
diploma after intensive courses.
- Yes, ma'am.
- Wonderful!
Anything else?
Why are you staring at me?
- Because I've seen you.
- Where?
In a photo in
a photographic studio.
Along with
a couple under a plane.
- He was in a pilot's uniform.
- Which studio?
- Near the marketplace?
- Yes.
- Madam...
- Yes?
Come here for a moment.
Good bye.
Wait a minute.
We have a problem here.
- What?
- Your father.
What about him?
What did you write here?
Something not clear? The Soviets
murdered him in Katyn in 1 940.
- I must lie about my father?
- Be reasonable.
- In the forest...
- You're not in the forest.
- Your opponents are not Germans.
- This is treason, Madam.
I only care for you to get the diploma.
This country must be raised from ruins.
Who'll do it if you all
let yourselves get killed.
You'll make corrections
in your CV, yes?
One have only one CV, Madam.
What do we do about him?
Your attitude to Katyn bespeaks
your loyalty to People's Poland.
I admit him and
you see to it
that he be reasonable.
You're his home
room teacher, right?
- What if Poland becomes free?
- There will never be a free Poland.
Mark my words.
Never.
I don't know Cracow.
Where do I run away?
- Have you seen a boy in a brown coat?
- No, no, no.
- You've saved me.
- Why did you do it?
Do I sit meek when they spit in my face?
I fuck such an order.
Sorry.
- "Aurochs".
- Ewa.
The coast is clear.
- Will we meet again?
- I don't know.
But we will for sure.
It's destiny.
Maybe... if you think so.
Yes, we'll meet.
That's not what I think.
I want it.
So do I.
The world's laughing.
THE WORLD'S LAUGHING
- I've never been to the movies.
- No kidding.
Haven't you seen that Disney's
The Sleeping Beauty, remember?
But that doesn't count.
I've never sat with a girl
on the rooftop.
Tomorrow in the movie house?
At 6 pm?
Good.
Freeze or I'll shoot!
Are you sure?
We'll plait a braid first.
You are saving my role.
No character without hair, right?
Those Germans who worked
at the theater during the occupation
took all the wigs away,
didn't leave anything.
- We'll plait a thick braid.
- What if I let the hair down?
It won't grow after the camp.
It was Auschwitz, you see?
It's a pity to cut it off.
Does your husband know?
Do your duty.
Don't you worry.
He'll return.
Yesterday a technical help
from our theater returned.
All of us had bewailed him.
Why live with
so much evil around?
It'd be a true misfortune
if my brother were left
without a grave after his death.
And the rest.
It's indifferent to me.
Do you think I'm mad?
How to judge a mad woman...
...before the tribunal
of a madman?
Who puts on a wig of someone's
hair, assumes his lot.
I wouldn't wish that
on my worst enemy.
- Count it.
- Would you like to see it?
LIEUTENANT PILO
You're looking for someone?
I have an appointment
with the Canon.
- The Canon is not here.
- So I'll wait.
But he was taken away
last night.
- Last night?
- Last night.
When the Germans dug out
the graves in Katyn in 1 943,
the Canon said Mass there?
Those from the International
Red Cross who were there,
the NKVD arrested long ago.
But I've brought a plaque
of my brother.
- Did the Canon agree?
- Yes.
Lieutenant Pilot
killed in Katyn in April 1 940.
But I cannot
put it up in the church.
I thought temples differed from
government offices or papers.
Those who took the Canon
away said they knew
all enemies of the people's
power, including the Lord God.
The Soviets did it in '40.
Everyone knows about it.
- You must agree.
- Did you think about the living?
How this plaque may
change the lot of the Canon?
Take it away.
What do you want to do?
To put it on our tomb
before it can hang in the church.
- Where have you been so long?
- What would you like to know?
- You could sometimes drop a line.
- Have you forgotten that...
- we had a brother?
- No, I haven't.
So help me.
- You're afraid.
- You know I can't.
Join the Party.
That gives power.
It's not that way. It's a different
time and no one will free
us from it neither during
our life or that of our children.
You've joined already.
Even the Rising
taught you nothing.
You won't change this world.
We can let them deport or kill us.
Or build as much freedom
as we can here,
as much Polish identity
as we can.
You're too wise
not to understand that.
You've found a place in
this new world of yours,
whereas I am whole
in that where Piotr is.
If I must choose,
I stay with him.
You choose the dead,
which is morbid.
No. I choose the murdered,
not the murderers.
How long will it take?
The work - 20 minutes,
but later even less.
I don't understand.
You asked how long
it would take.
Do your work.
I hear that you spread
false information about Katyn.
What do you think is false?
My brother's letter from
April 6, 1 940 is true.
You know it was the Germans.
You put a plaque in the cemetery
with a false date of your
brother's death in 1 940.
- To slander the Soviet comrades?
- I'm interested in the truth.
The truth is a given.
The Russians persuade
all it was the Germans.
The Germans accuse the Russians.
Even the Polish
- government did not explain the affair.
- Hands on the table!
How can you say I spread
false information about Katyn?
You'll sign a statement that
Katyn is a German crime.
No.
Who did you fight in the Rising?
Saved by a miracle,
you don't want to live
in your own country?
- You're in your own country.
- You find life unbearable?
Major, the Germans tried that
with me for 5 years,
and you in 5 minutes?
We have much more time
than the Germans.
Maybe so.
Just tell me where I am.
In Poland?
Take her away.
Nika!
- Father's coming.
- No. You're again imagining things.
Yes?
- This is for you.
- Yes?
We don't return mementos
from Katyn to the families now.
- When I learned that the major...
- What major?
The one who asked
to give it to you shot himself.
He shot himself.
So I decided to bring it.
Kozielsk, April 7, '40.
For two days they've
been deporting us.
Where and why?
Nobody knows.
After a search at 4:55 p.m.
our Polish time 2:55 p.m.
we left the walls and barbed wires
of the Kozielsk camp.
We were put in prison carriages.
I'd never seen such carriages.
They say that 50% of passenger
cars in the USSR are prison ones.
8:30 a.m. Departure from
Kozielsk westward.
9:45 a.m. Jelnia Station.
I'm along with a major,
a colonel, and a few captains.
Twelve altogether
with room for seven at the most.
Judging by the pieces
of paper we found,
we get off outside Smolensk
about 1 0 km. We'll see.
We must be going to Smolensk.
Gniezdovo Station.
Lieutenant Pilot,
April 1 0, 1 940.
4:45 a.m. they wake us up
in the prison cars.
Now by trucks...
Arrival at Gniezdovo,:
402 km away from Moscow.
Two Black Marias and
a truck for things.
Take off your belt.
Next.
Family name, patronymic, rank.
The general's documents.
Born April 2, 1 892.
It checks out.
Take him away.
Next.
5:00 a.m. We leave
in a Black Maria.
They brought us to a forest,
a kind of spa. A thorough search.
They didn't find
my wedding ring.
They took away my belt,
penknife, and watch.
It showed 8:30 a.m.,
our Polish time 6:30 a.m.
What will happen to us?
Our Father
Thou art in heaven...
Thy will be done on Earth
as well as in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread...
...Forgive us our trespasses...
...as we forgive those
who trespass against us...