present the film
based on Andrzej Mularczyk's novel Post Mortem
Screenplay by
Starring
as Major Popov
nd
Sound
Makeup
Costume Designer Uniforms and Military Items by
Set Designer Interior Designer
Photography of the September 1939 sequence by
Edited by
Production Manager Executive Producer
Producer
Music
Director of Photography
Directed by
September 17, 1939
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.
ln 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 17, 1939
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.
l'll try to write from time to time to let you know
what happen to me if l 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 rmy.
First Lieutenant of the NKVD Kozlov.
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.
- nna? Your wife? - Why, She's in Cracow.
What're you doing here, nna? Why aren't you in Cracow?
- Where's Nika? - ndrzej...
- ndrzej, I thought... - Where's Nika?
You'll see her in the 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.
nna, 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, nna, calm down. - I beg you...
I beg you, ndrzej...
No talking to the prisoner!
- ndrzej. - ll will be well.
- Daddy! - Niki.
Don't go away!
Take her.
- Take her away. - Come, darling.
Take care.
Nika!
Daddy!
THE YOUNGEST CAVLRY CPTIN...
Maybe the navy blue would be better?
No, thank you, my dear.
I thought you were working.
I found an old paper with ndrzej's photo
when he was the youngest cavalry captain in the Polish rmy.
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... Muller?
- I told you. - We need to buy a new jacket.
Muller. Doctor Muller.
Does he have a scientific degree,
- that Muller? - Yes. He calls himself
police government adviser.
Dr. Muller.
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, 1939 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... - ny 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 1939 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 1939 Soviet Occupation Zone
The Soviet Red rmy is your only friend.
ny further resistance is pointless.
The Soviet Red rmy 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? - nna.
Wife of a cavalry captain,
born in Cracow in 1910, 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.
nd 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, 1939
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.
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,
lnfinite 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. nna,
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, nna.
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.
s 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 rmy 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 ndrzej, who lives and will return.
nna...
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 Ieksandrowna?
Born in Krakow in 1909?
The wife of the Polish rmy officer Kazimierz Ignatowicz?
Pack your things.
Jesus...
What happened?
Fire?
What're you doing here?
nd 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.
nna Ieksandrowna, born May, 2, 1910...
wife of the Polish officer ndrzej...
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.f
The situation near Narvik hasn't changed.
German planes attacked British marching columns
with MG fire and dispersed them.
Cracow, Spring of 1940
A British cruiser was hit with a bomb...
My dear God...
You're here.
re 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 ndrzej 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.
ny 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.
- nd 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, Iieutenant.
You don't look well recently.
It's my kidneys and I get shivers.
Here's a present for you.
- How come? nd 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, 1940,
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 1st transport on April 3.
Men are easy to lose, but their families and the army are waiting for them...
- s 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. - ttention!
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, 13, 1943
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 1903,
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. lD 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.
ndrzej 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 ndrzej lives.
It can't be that something happened to him somewhere,
which I don't know. He is part of me.
nd no part of me has died.
Yes, yes...
letter has come, Mom.
Official. From the Germans.
- Propaganda bteilung... - 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 dolf 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 Fuhrer 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.
Read it!
Madam, you need this statement as much as we do.
You wouldn't like to send your daughter letters from uschwitz?
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!
... we give you further names of the victims.f
Wladyslaw Godziszewski, lieutenant,
b. June 22, 1 895,
high school teacher.
Lucjan Gawronski, captain,
Olgierd Druchowicz, major, electrical engineer.
Cracow, Jan. 18, 1945 - 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 rmy.
- 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!
- ndrzej. - Dad!
ndrzej.
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 ndrzej?
Do you know my son's whereabouts?
Unfortunately,
I saw him in 1940 last
when they took him to another camp.
That means...
Nobody knows, and nothing is certain.
So many mistakes. You live...
nna 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 ndrzej? 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. nna. 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 ndrzej 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 nders.
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.
ha.
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 1941.
The Germans committed the murder with utter cynicism,
which the bullet wounds bear out.
That's how they shot the Poles.
Delegations of the 1st Polish Corps in the USSR
have come for the exequies.
HONOR TO THE FLLEN
During the ceremony, the priest told the participants.f
''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 1st Corps, to testify
about the impartiality of their investigation.
- nd? - We did.
It's a lie. nd 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?
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? - bout 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.
ll.
nd 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.
gnieszka, 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 1943.
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? - 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?
unt.
- Tadzio. - unt nna.
- Tadzio. - Hello, unt.
God! What're you doing here?
You've grown so tall that I hardly recognize you.
nd Ela? ny 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?
fter 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?
passport photo.
I read in the paper that the Fine rts cademy
is going to be opened. If I start a new life...
Wonderful.
I like to draw. Take a look, unt.
Mrs. nna we again have college students in Poland.
Exactly! nd 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!
nything else? Why are you staring at me?
- Because I've seen you. - Where?
In a photo in a photographic studio.
Iong 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 1940.
- 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.
- ''urochs''. - 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 LUGHING
- 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?
t 6 pm?
Good.
Freeze or I'll shoot!
re 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 uschwitz, 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.
ll 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.
nd 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?
LIEUTENNT PILOT
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 1943,
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 1940.
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, 1940 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 1940.
- 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.f55 p.m.
our Polish time 2.f55 p.m.
we left the walls and barbed wires of the Kozielsk camp.
We were put in prison carriages. l'd never seen such carriages.
They say that 50`/. of passenger cars in the USSR are prison ones.
8.f30 a.m. Departure from Kozielsk westward.
9.f45 a.m. Jelnia Station.
l'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,
1st air Squadron, Deblin.
April 10, 1940.
4:45 a.m. they wake us up in the prison cars.
Now by trucks...
Arrival at Gniezdovo,f 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, 1892.
It checks out.
Take him away.
Next.
5.f00 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.
lt showed 8.f30 a.m., our Polish time 6.f30 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...