Kapò

If somebody would like to see what was a nazi prison, one has to see this movies. It showed with realism the nature of cruelty by nazis and the ways they used some of their prisoners to watch the movement of the rest and to combat effectively any possible plot against them. Pontecorvo is a director with a few films, but all of them always show real facts of the history, and this film is not an exception

Quite an excellent character study of what people will do to survive. Although not as powerful as other prisoner of war films such as "Seven Beauties" it stands out because of the performances of all the women and especially Susan Strasberg who does a magnificent job starting out as the young innocent girl, hiding the fact that she is Jewish, a bewildering task, and her agonizing evolution into a hardened guard.

Don't look for huge sets and gruesome scenes of gas chambers and ovens here. It's not that type of film. It's a simple story of the slow chipping away of humanity that dire conditions force. Dignity and nobility give way to cruelty and inhumanity and simple survival becomes a thing to justify as time goes on. By telling this type of story through the eyes of a young impressionable person is excellent.

A teen Jewish girl and her family are imprisoned in a concentration camp . There, the 14-years-old girl played by Susan Strasberg finds a harsh reality and changes identities with the help of the camp medic and rises to the position of Kapo. This is a good movie about the brutal existence at concentration camps and subsequent breakout from horrible place. This excellent movie deals about extermination center, abuse of camp guards or Kapos who enjoy their power, prisoners committing suicide and the subsequent getaway led by Laurent Terzieff and Russian prisoners . We see the horrors,murders,massacres against the prisoners and Nazis personify evil . Thus , when the incoming transports ,mostly Jews, SS soldiers made instant decisions,those who were fit to labors were sent into the camp, others including the children ,were dispatched immediately to the gas chambers.Finally the inmates broke out in a desperate riot that I believe it can be the concentration camp of Sorbibor, only in which Russian prisoners achieved to escape . The picture reflects perfectly the atrocities as a by-product of sheer Nazi evil . The flick is powered by splendid performances , as Susan Strasberg, -daughter of Lee Strasberg, creator of Actors studio- as suffering starring and Laurent Terzieff is watchable as obstinate Russian soldier wishing freedom. Appears as secondary actor playing a Nazi soldier Gianni Garco or John Garco, future Spaghetti Western hero named Sartana . Shot in magnificent black and white by Sekulovic and Carlo De Palma , Woody Allen's usual cameraman . Sensitive and atmospheric score by Carlo Rustichelli. The film achieved an Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign movie but lost to the ¨Virgin Spring ¨. This extraordinary and unknown film by one of the pioneers of political film , he always interesting director Gillo Pontecorvo. It was one of the first films about the theme of Jewish holocaust and one of the more realistic in its recreation . Gillo subsequently will directed ¨Battle of Argel¨ and ¨Queimada¨.

The picture is based on real events and survivor's memories,these are the following : The large death camps were transformed into extermination centers to implement the policy of genocide thought at the Wannsee Conference (1942). There was some minor industrial activity linked to the war effort but the main work was the execution of inmates (as happen with the starring's family) . Victims (as Susan Strasberg and her parents) were brought to the camp in unventilated transports, and all but a handful were gassed after arrival,the gas chambers could accommodate hundred prisoners at one time using Zyclon B which was a crystallized prussic acid which dropped into death chamber ,most of their corpses were burned in open pits (as occurs at the ending of the movie when is opened a large hole to bury unfortunates).

Edith is a Jewish teen whose family is among those loaded onto boxcars and shipped to Auschwitz. This is a story of brutality and Susan Strasberg ("Picnic") plays the central character who struggles to survive the Nazi holocaust machine.

Shot in black and white, of course, the film provides a stark and nearly unrelenting look at the depravity, deprivations, and degradations found in concentration camps. Strasberg is strong in her role, embodying the chameleon-like ability to change that gives her character a chance to survive, though survival has its price.

The action feels real, the locations feel real, and real emotions are evoked by this ambitious attempt to delve into the real human costs of barbarism---the loss of principles, the corruption of dignity, and the subtle shadings of resistance.

The Italian producers of this film pursued Strasberg for this role, somehow knowing that she had the depth within her to bring Edith to life on the screen. Her father, Lee, recommended she accept the role. Luckily, she did.

Although it features two French leads (Laurent Terzieff and Emmanuelle Riva) ,"Kapo" has disappeared from the French dictionaries of films whereas lots of duds are included.

With the exceptions of "Nuit et Brouillard" (which was an exceptional documentary ) and Wanda Jakubowska 's "ostatni etap' (1947) there were few movies which at the time broached the concentration camps subject(the last scenes of Dmytryk's "young lions" ,1958)

Susan Strasberg was impressive ,mainly in the first hour though the evolution of her character is not always believable.Besides,her relationship with Sascha weakens the plot .

Emmanuelle Riva almost outshines Strasberg,maybe because she was a more experimented actress (she was featured in Resnais's "Hiroshima Mon Amour" ) and her scene when she is translating the German words in a voice chocked with emotion may be the strongest in the whole movie.

The "potato" scene is also revealing.I remember what Simone Veil ,a former French minister (secretary) (and herself a former prisoner in a concentration camp),said after watching the last episode of "Holocaust " (the seventies miniseries) : "in the camps ,people were not as helpful ,as kind ,as compassionate as they are in the film" ."Kapo" shows a very harsh world where the women are almost always fighting against their mates:that's the story of Edith /Nicole .

When it was released ,the movie was trashed by Jacques Rivette because of a tracking after Riva 's death ;at the time Nouvelle vague= intellectual dictatorship.Although defended by the Italian masters (including Visconti),the movie was cursed .The IMDb users have restored it to favor.