An excellent film on the costs of freedom and the oppressiveness of living in a world without it.

I, like most Americans probably, had never heard of the Katyn massacre before this movie. During WWII, Soviet forces executed 20,000 Polish POW officers and then spent several decades denying their actions and forcing the Polish people to pretend the Germans were the killers. Katyn elegantly follows the lives of those left behind. Although it is a serious subject and I definitely cried, the movie sidesteps becoming maudlin, managing to find the right tone to convey the horror and wastefulness of war – not only for the soldiers, but their loved ones as well. Those left behind were forced to choose between endorsing the Soviet lies in order to move on with their lives, or to stubbornly embrace the truth despite the consequences.