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THE LAST WITNESS

THE LAST WITNESS is a political thriller based on the harrowing true events of the Katyn Massacre in Spring 1940. In post-WW2 England, ambitious journalist Stephen Underwood (Alex Pettyfer) comes across a disturbing spate of suicides by Polish soldiers. Sensing a story, his first port of call is Colonel Janusz Pietrowski, a Liaison Officer for the re- settlement of Polish troops under British command, but the meeting with Pietrowski leaves Stephen unsettled, and from here his investigation escalates as he finds himself embroiled in a dangerous, multi-layered conspiracy concerning the execution of 22,000 Polish military and civilians by Stalin's secret police.

  • PIOTR SZKOPIAK
    Director
    SMALL TIME OBSESSION
  • PAUL SZAMBOWSKI
    Writer
  • PIOTR SZKOPIAK
    Writer
    SMALL TIME OBSESSION
  • CAROL HARDING
    Producer
  • ALEX PETTYFER
    Key Cast
    "STEPHEN UNDERWOOD"
    MAGIC MIKE, I AM NUMBER FOUR
  • MICHAEL GAMBON
    Key Cast
    "FRANK HAMILTON"
    KING OF THIEVES, HARRY POTTER
  • TALULAH RILEY
    Key Cast
    "JEANETTE MITCHELL"
    WESTWORLD
  • ROBERT WIECKIEWICZ
    Key Cast
    "MICHAEL LOBODA"
    IN DARKNESS
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    THRILLER, NOIR, WAR, DRAMA
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 33 minutes 23 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 1, 2017
  • Production Budget:
    3,000,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital ProRes 3.2K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.40:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Polish Theatrical Release
    Warsaw
    Poland
    May 11, 2018
    World Premiere
  • UK Theatrical Release
    London
    United Kingdom
    August 17, 2018
    UK Premiere
  • New York City International Film Festival
    New York
    United States
    February 27, 2019
    Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design
  • Garden State Film Festival
    New Jersey
    United States
    March 30, 2019
    Best Supporting Actress
  • Maryland International Film Festival
    Hagerstown
    United States
    March 31, 2019
    Official Selection
  • Manhattan Film Festival
    New York
    United States
    April 30, 2019
    Official Selection
  • Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival
    Mumbai
    India
    April 30, 2019
    Certificate of Excellence
  • Portugal International Film Festival
    Porto
    Portugal
    May 18, 2019
    Best Feature Film
  • New Hope Film Festival
    New Hope
    United States
    July 27, 2019
    Best Picture
  • Chain NYC Film Festival
    New York
    United States
    August 13, 2019
    Official Selection
  • Brazil International Film Festival
    Rio de Janeiro
    Brazil
    August 23, 2019
    Rising Star
  • Borderscene Film Festival
    Las Cruces
    United States
    September 7, 2019
    Official Selection
  • Binge Festival
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    United Kingdom
    September 19, 2019
    Best Feature
  • Footcandle Film Festival
    Hickory
    United States
    September 27, 2019
    Official Selection
  • Polish Film Festival
    Los Angeles
    United States
    October 20, 2019
    Official Selection
  • YoFiFest
    New York
    United States
    November 2, 2019
    Official Selection
  • Toronto Polish Film Festival
    Toronto
    Canada
    November 10, 2019
    Official Selection
  • Sydney Lift-Off Film Festival
    Sydney
    Australia
    November 21, 2019
    Official Selection
  • Chicago European Union Film Festival
    Chicago
    United States
    March 15, 2020
    Official Selection
  • Burbank International Film Festival
    Burbank
    United States
    September 11, 2020
    Official Selection
  • Unruly Unbreakable Cursed International Film Festival
    Gdynia
    Poland
    September 27, 2020
    Official Selection
  • Yucca Valley Film Festival
    Yucca Valley
    United States
    November 11, 2022
    Best Feature Film
  • British International Film Festival
    Lichfield
    United Kingdom
    January 20, 2023
    Official Selection
  • Bristol Independent Film Festival
    Bristol
    United Kingdom
    November 25, 2023
    Best Feature Film
Distribution Information
  • eOne/Momentum Pictures
    Country: United States
    Rights: All Rights
  • Signature Entertainment
    Country: United Kingdom
    Rights: All Rights
  • Kino Swiat
    Country: Poland
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - PIOTR SZKOPIAK

THE LAST WITNESS is Piotr Szkopiak's second feature film.

Piotr’s first feature SMALL TIME OBSESSION had a UK theatrical release in 2000 and was selected to play in competition at the British and Irish Film Festival in Cherbourg, France, and as part of the UK Film Series in New Zealand. International sales include Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Australia. Both Variety and the UK's Guardian described him as “a director to watch”.

Piotr works regularly as a director in television drama, most recently as lead director on BBC crime drama Shakespeare & Hathaway. Piotr has also directed The Coroner, Father Brown, Heartbeat, Casualty, Doctors, EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, for which he was twice nominated for BAFTA TV Awards.

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Director Statement

Film is an infinite source of new experiences: artistic, entertaining and educational. It allows us access to situations, cultures and eras vastly different from our own, developing our understanding of the human condition and the world at large. My intention as a filmmaker is to tell the kinds of stories that affected me as a child and continue to affect me to this day.

Few situations are ever black or white. As a result, we are all drawn to strong but flawed characters faced with difficult moral choices, forced to make life-changing decisions in potentially overwhelming situations. It makes us question what we would do in those same situations; to examine how and why our own values have been formed and how they relate to the society we live in now.

The Polish community that settled in the UK after the Second World War is unique. It is not a community formed of economic migrants but of political refugees. The first hand accounts from Poles who fought in WW2 and those deported from Poland by the Soviet Union in 1940, in a massive act of ethnic cleansing, are in danger of being lost altogether as numbers decline. Details of these narratives are scarcely acknowledged by Western historians and for that reason I wish to give them a voice with this film.

As history continues to be rewritten and airbrushed to suit political agendas, I believe the story told in THE LAST WITNESS has never been more vital and contemporary as it deals directly with the nature of morality and whether a democratic government is ever justified in suppressing the truth in order to influence public opinion on world events.

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 finally examines them from a British one.