Campo 19

Drama post-WWII film about German soldiers in a concentration camp with superb interpretation and tension enough.

Directed by Tom Roberts from a screenplay by Natalia Nightingale-Grey and Simon van der Borgh, In Tranzit has the following synopsis: Set in Leningrado, 1946, in the chaotic aftermath of WWII, a group of German prisoners are sent to a female transit camp by the cruel Russian Commander Pavlov (John Malkovich). When the guards are given the task of weeding out the SS officers, they play a bitter game of cat and mouse with the prisoners. Natalia (Vera Farmiga) and the inmate Max (Thomas Kretschmann) feel a great attraction for each other while the prisoner Klaus (Daniel Brühl) attempts to convince Max to denounce some prisoners to please and obtain privileges from the Russians. Each group slowly learns that situations are not what they seem; prejudices are sometimes unjustly held; and love can be found in even the harshest places. From her greatest enemy came her greatest love !

From the beginning the film seems to develop like the typical story of concentration camps with the particularity that prisoners are Nazis, the plot then takes an intriguing tack when they must cope with the hostility of the Soviet female inmates and guards, suffering a undisguised resentment from their previous criminal activities. The film turns out to be decent enough, dealing primarily with the relationships between German prisoners and their guards, who are mostly Russian women, adding brief intrigues about who the snitch is. This is a well-paced and well-acted movie. However, it is marred by a terrible ending with a bizarre and twisted plot that is not well developed.

.Alongside the two main characters: Vera Farmiga, Thomas Kretschmann, John Malkovich giving engaging performances, there is a long list of supporting characters - many of them in their early days and who would later go on to develop successful careers, such as: Daniel Brühl, Natalie Press, Patrick Kennedy and John Lynch.

This unknown film was professionally directed by Tom Roberts , but it failed at the boxoffice, and that's why it was distributed straight to DVD in several countries. Tom is a craftsman, writer, producer and director who has filmed both for television and the big screen, including his following works: ¨Hebron Exposed - A Weapon of Life¨, ¨Every Last Child¨, Alfred and Jakobine¨, ¨Mandela: The Prison Years¨, ¨Ghosts of the 7th Cavalry¨, ¨ Frontline¨, ¨Dispatches¨, ¨Wide Angle¨, ¨ Witness¨ , ¨Time watch¨, among others. In tranzit (2008) rating; 6.5/10. The movie will appeal to WWII enthusiasts.

First of all, anyone should watch this movie not because of the plot, but because one needs to learn history from alternative viewpoints.

What is remarkable about this movie, is that it depicts accurately the Soviet policy of killing any prisoner of war by starving, exposure, sentenced execution of simply random killing. One of the dark secrets of the Allies is that they never respected any Geneva conventions and were notorious for committing crimes against humanity.

So some prisoners (the minority) did survive because of luck. There were a few righteous among the nations that helped them with extra food or clothing at a great risk for themselves, so I am glad this movie pays tribute for those compassionate ladies.

This is supposedly based upon a true story. maybe the part that is true is that the Russians didn't have enough space for all their prisoners, and just dumped four dozen in a lightly staffed women's prison.

Starring Thomas Kretschmann, who managed six roles in 2008 including Wanted and Valkyrie in addition to this one. Also featuring Vera Farmiga (The Departed), who only had four roles in 2008, including The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. She has a deal with the prison Commandant, played by John Malkovich, to protect her lover from being sent to the front. Also along is Daniel Brühl (Inglourious Basterds, The Bourne Ultimatum, 2 Days in Paris, Joyeux Noël), always a welcome addition.

It was definitely a dark and depressing film, made the more so by the constant snow. There are some SS Officers in the mix and Pavlov (Malkovich) is determined to root them out and hang them. He enlists Natalia (Farmiga) for this task. Malkovich was born for roles like this.

It is strange the the women who hated the prisoners in the beginning for killing their families manage to find forgiveness at the end so they can have sex.

It was the acting, not the script that made this worthwhile.

I would like to commend the producers for creating a film with unique concept incomparable to other war movies, because instead of tackling the rampant theme of war, they tackled the post-war situation.

First, in criticizing this film, we don't actually have to deal much about the screen portrayals because the movie does not include heavy drama. However, even if it does not, we still have to appreciate the fact that the actors and actresses really did well in portraying and none of them were over acting. Although, we cannot disavow as well, that there were some who were under acting.

Second, I love the fact that the producers did not frontline script to make a beautiful movie. They made it as realistic as it could be, for it seemed more natural than others.

Third, The musical scoring is on average, but one thing that really depressed me is the playing of violin by one of the prisoners that wasn't synchronized with the video.

Fourth, I was expecting something more on what I can see on the screen -- something like extreme panning of cameras to switch scenes or some amazing CGIs to depict extreme cruelty -- but then everything seemed to be mainstream.

Fifth, the video quality was good. It was not that dark so that we can clearly see what's happening on screen. It was not that light neither that gives a hinge of some historic feeling.

Lastly, The whole 113 minutes was dull. The only variations were the few sexualities which were obviously done to attract and catch viewers. They may use "It's a true story" as an excuse for having no pinnacle scenes other than the sexualities, but I believe it could have been better if they used some cliffhangers to retain, for at least, the interest of the viewers.

Overall, I'd give it a rating of 7 out of 10.

Yikes! Just watched it in Russian. Fortunately I speak enough Russian to understand the voice-over; wish they had kept it in the original English and just added Russian subtitles. Kretschmann, Bruhl, Farmiga and Press all give excellent performances; Evegeny Mironov does the most amazing "silent" performance since his Russian version of Kafka's "Metamorphosis". I have no doubt that anti-German sentiment was running high in 1946 in Leningrad; nevertheless, surely there was some hope or ray of sunshine in all the gloom. I am beginning to understand why this film was not marketed in America. Unless you lived through those times, or are a student of history, the subject matter of this film may not have much appeal. Still, for you history buffs out there, don't miss some fine acting in this film.