The Last Witness

What would it mean to Poland for the full truth surrounding the betrayal of the Polish people by the British government that hid the horrors of Katyn for over 70 years be told for the first time to a worldwide audience?

Krakow based production company, Film Polska, are asking just that question with their new film, The Last Witness. The film exposes the full story of how the British establishment buried the truth for nearly 70 years for the sake of political expediency.

The Last Witness is a classically styled political thriller based on real events and set in England, 1947. A young, ambitious journalist risks love, career and ultimately his life to uncover the true identity of an Eastern European refugee and his connection to the British government’s collusion in the cover up of one of Stalin\'s most notorious crimes.

Film Polska Productions was founded in 2009 when three leading Krakow media businesses merged to form one of Poland’s busiest entertainment production houses with active investment in films, TV and theatre sectors.

In less than 2 years the dynamic team of Maciej Żemojcin, Krzysztof Solek and markus Nawracaj have grown the company from high end commercials servicing into successful film and television producers by adopting an attitude that is always looking for new solutions in producing films and new subjects to speak about.

Apart from documentaries and film, Film Polska have account work with international TV Channels including The History Channel, Channel 9, Scifi Channel, History Canada as well as ever increasing TV advertising work.

CONTACT FILM POLSKA: philm@filmpolska.pl

The Last Witness is an international co-production with Vicarious Dreams, London.

The writer/director, Piotr Szkopiak, has a personal connection to Katyn as his grandfather died there. Piotr has worked extensively as a writer/director for both UK and Polish television. His direct connection to the topic promises to bring a passion and insight that will deliver a high quality film. As he succinctly says,

“In 2007, famed Polish director Andrzej Wajda made KATYN, finally examining the events surrounding the Katyn Massacre from a Polish point of view and now THE LAST WITNESS will finally examine them from a British one.”

The producers are assured of $3 million towards the cost of making the film. Ambitious to get the truth out to a worldwide audience the producers are acutely aware of market drivers. In the entertainment industry it is about getting a ‘NAME’ to appear. That is why they are turning to fellow Poles to join them in getting that truth to as many as possible.

The production company are aiming to raise a further $2 million that would secure the A List star which would guarantee worldwide exposure and distribution. Distribution has already been guaranteed in the UK and Poland but the producer’s desire to reach a worldwide audience has, for those who want this story told, created an opportunity to invest in the film.

Producer, Krzysztof Solek, explained, ‘Raising this investment is key to accessing important markets. To achieve this we have created the chance for up to 200 people to get behind us and invest in this important production. Both individuals and companies can get involved and will not only be sharing in the profits from a box office success but gain from the satisfaction that the truth is finally out’.

The film is set to go into production later this year with an international release in the summer of 2012.

To find out more contact philm@filmpolska.pl

CONTACT FILM POLSKA: philm@filmpolska.pl

The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre (Polish: zbrodnia katyńska, mord katyński, \'Katyń crime\'; Russian: Катынский расстрел), was a mass execution of Polish nationals carried out by the Soviet secret police NKVD in April–May 1940. It was based on Lavrentiy Beria\'s proposal to execute all members of the Polish Officer Corps, dated 5 March 1940. This official document was then approved and signed by the Soviet Politburo, including its leader, Joseph Stalin. The number of victims is estimated at about 22,000, the most commonly cited number being 21,768. The victims were murdered in the Katyn Forest in Russia, the Kalinin and Kharkov prisons and elsewhere. About 8,000 were officers
taken prisoner during the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, the rest being Polish doctors, professors, lawmakers, police officers, and other public servants arrested for allegedly being "intelligence agents, gendarmes, landowners, saboteurs, factory owners, lawyers, officials and priests." Since Poland\'s conscription system required every un-exempted university graduate to become a reserve officer, the NKVD was able to round up much of the Polish intelligentsia, and the Russian, Ukrainian, Tatar, Jewish, Georgian, and Belarusian intelligentsia of Polish citizenship.

The term "Katyn massacre" originally referred specifically to the massacre at Katyn Forest, near the villages of Katyn and Gnezdovo (ca. 19 kilometres (12 mi) west of Smolensk, Russia), of Polish military officers in the Kozelsk prisoner-of-war camp. This was the largest of several roughly simultaneous executions of prisoners of war; the others included executions at the geographically distant Starobelsk and Ostashkov camps, and the executions of political prisoners from West Belarus and West Ukraine, shot at Katyn Forest, at the NKVD headquarters in Smolensk, at a Smolensk slaughterhouse, and at prisons in Kalinin (Tver), Kharkov, Moscow, and other Soviet cities. The Belorussian and Ukrainian Katyn Lists are NKVD lists of names of Polish prisoners to be murdered at various locations in Belarus and Western Ukraine. The modern Polish investigation of the Katyn massacre covered not only the massacre at Katyn forest, but also the other mass murders mentioned above.

Nazi Germany announced the discovery of mass graves in the Katyn Forest in 1943. The revelation led to the end of diplomatic relations between Moscow and the London-based Polish government-in-exile. The Soviet Union continued to deny responsibility for the massacres until 1990, when it officially acknowledged and condemned the perpetration of the killings by the NKVD, as well as the subsequent cover-up.

CONTACT FILM POLSKA: philm@filmpolska.pl

An investigation conducted by the Prosecutor General\'s Office of the Soviet Union (1990–1991) and the Russian Federation (1991– 2004), has confirmed Soviet responsibility for the massacres. It was able to confirm the deaths of 1,803 Polish citizens but refused to classify this action as a war crime or an act of genocide. The investigation was closed on grounds that the perpetrators of the massacre were already dead, and since the Russian government would not classify the dead as victims of Stalinist repression, formal posthumous rehabilitation was ruled out. The human rights society Memorial issued a statement which declared "this termination of investigation is inadmissible" and that their confirmation of only 1,803 people killed "requires explanation because it is common knowledge that more than 14,500 prisoners were killed."

The British involvement was never fully acknowledged until now with this film, The Last Witness.

CONTACT FILM POLSKA: philm@filmpolska.pl