REVIEWS
THE LAST WITNESS Q+A WITH DIRECTOR PIOTR SZKOPIAK
NEW LIGHT IS PLACED UPON THE FORGOTTEN TRAGEDY OF THE KATYN MASSACRE OF 1940 IN THIS ANGLO-POLISH HISTORICAL THRILLER
Based on true events, director Piotr Szkopiak’s new film The Last Witness is a historical thriller set in post-war England in 1947. It follows an ambitious British journalist, Stephen Underwood, as he uncovers a multi-layered conspiracy concerning the harrowing murder of 22,000 Polish officers, executed by Stalin’s secret police in 1940, and is today remembered as ‘The Katyn Massacre’.
How did you set about adapting the real history, as well as the Paul Szambowski play, to the big screen?
We’ve all watched that film where it’s ‘based on a true story’ and they have bastardised everything. Here, because it’s personal history, Polish history, I have got a huge responsibility in telling that history as factually as I can, but also I’m trying to make a film, an engaging film.
So this is where the idea of making it a thriller came into it. It’s ultimately a murder mystery, and that is how we approached it. I have to say, I didn’t set out to make a film about Katyn. It is about Katyn by default, because we are seeing it through the eyes of the witness.
He is witness to the massacre, but I’m not telling those details. That is a massive story in itself and Andrzej Wajda made that film [2007’s Katyn]. I didn’t want to make the same film. I
