The late Robert Vas's investigation into the Katyn Forest Massacre epitomises his concern for man's inhumanity to man.
In 1943 the Germans, then occupying the Smolensk region of the Soviet Union, unearthed a mass grave in which the bodies of more than 4,000 Polish army officers were found. They instigated an investigation: it blamed the Russians for the murder. Half a year later the Russians re-occupied the area, dug up the corpses and conducted their own investigation which put the blame on the Germans.
In 35 years the gruesome story of the Katyn Forest Massacre has become perhaps the most baffling unsolved crime of the last war. Files and men disappeared; a key witness was found hanged. There were no eye-witnesses to the executions; no survivors. No international tribunal ever sat.
Even today, Katyn is still an 'issue to be avoided', because of the far-reaching political and moral implications of the case.
In this film a self-appointed tribunal - in which the viewpoints of the nations involved in the case are represented by actors - conducts its own investigation.
What happened at Katyn? Who committed the crime? And why?
Taking part: Michael Bryant, Lindsay Campbell, Dennis Edwards, Richard Marner, Stanley Meadows, Morris Perry, George Pravda, Edwin Richfield, Norman Wooland
"Robert Vas's film was as compelling of its kind as is likely to emerge this year."
(Daily Telegraph)
Producer ROBERT VAS