At 82, the great Andrzej Wajda tackles an atrocity he couldn’t mention during the Communist era: the execution of 15,000 Polish officers — one of them his father — by Stalin’s secret police in Katyn Forest in 1940.
This is a heartfelt work of commemoration and accusation, focused on the cover-up of the massacre and its grievous consequences. Inspired by the suffering of his mother, Wajda brings art and heart to history in interweaving strands about women awaiting their men in vain and children searching dangerously for the truth. This may not rank among his greatest masterpieces, but it’s exciting to see that Wajda still has a devastating, defiant work in him.