O Fotógrafo de Mauthausen

I don't want to say something nasty about this movie; it would be unfair. The production design and overall work deserves much respect, but unfortunately there were a couple of elements that bothered me. First the characters of the prisoners look - at least most of them - rather good fed and athletics. But I know it is difficult to put lots of people on a crash diet, as Chistian Bale or Tom Hanks did in the past for their roles. Second, as in 99% of films about Nazis - army or Concentration camps - Germans are Always shown as idiots, and this for many details. Germans during WW2 were cruel, barbarians, everything you wish, everything BUT IDIOTS. If they had been so, they would have not spread so much terror in the whole Europe from Norway to Sicily - I Don't even mention North Afrika and Rommel's Afrika Korps - and from Atlantic coast to Russia....So please Don't confound Nazi ideology, which was of course totally idiot and criminal with master race, antisemitism, racism, and GERMAN discipline, order and efficiency spirit. So back to this film, it is not the best ever about concentration camps. I have seen Polish or Russian movies from the sixties and seventies, shot in black and white, far more realistic than this one. But it remains a good film, Don't misunderstand me. One last thing, I saw in the feature an interesting shot, showing four men in a car, with the camera just in front of the wind shield, a shot which was ofteen used by the great French director Jean-Pierre Melville; a shot very rarely shown since many décades now. At least I guess....Maybe this is a tribute from the Spanish director to Melville and his awesome ARMY OF SHADOWS. Which you have this shot, of course.

Excellent excellent excellent, this is a must see movie, on the scale of large budget Hollywood flicks, with a limited budget. It will move you, and remember based on true account and pictures.

Along with "Schindler's List," this is a stark, brutal re-enactment of actual events in possibly the most brutal and horrendous of all the concentration camps, Mauthausen. The film faithfully chronicles a true story... perhaps too faithfully for the faint of heart to watch. This finely acted film, which must have been excruciating for the actors to work on, is a must-see for its historical value, not for casual amusement (there's nothing amusing about sadism, unless you're a Nazi). The recreation of scenes the real photographer captured is amazing for their detailed accuracy, and the film brilliantly brings the images, originally captured in black and white, to life. I rated this film an "8", which I deem a very high rating, only because production values were not of top-notch calibre... but, then, they really didn't need to be for this film. The setting, along with the acting, was perfectly believable as is, and you'll be sucked into a nightmare as soon as the film begins... and stay there until the last few minutes. That alone makes this film a huge success.

A film that brilliantly portays the true horrors committed by the Nazis and how the victims fought back. The filmography is quite elegant and so was the acting. The 6.5 rating(at the time of writing) is quite an understatement.

If you are interested in Holocaust during the World War II this is another one not to miss. A true story perfectly documented with many proofs. The scenarios are original and I really felt to be in this nightmare created by the Nazis. The actors delivered great performances. Bravo. It gets 10/10.