La dernière étape

Director Wanda Jakubowska was, herself, interred in Auschwitz during the latter stages of WWII, and so is uniquely placed to tell us the story of "Marta" (a stirring effort from Barbara Drapinski). A Jewish woman who is sent for slaughter to this infamous camp, but whom - by a curious twist of fate - is selected to interpret for the Nazis. That may spare her, but she must watch her family and countless others live lives of violence, deprivation and humiliation before the potential relief of death was visited upon them. What we see here illustrates really succinctly the brutality that went on here; and sometimes that appeared all the worst because the criminal frau were just as complicit in these atrocities as the men. Indeed, some seemed to positively relish their newfound power! The use of a gramophone record to cover the sounds of the regular beatings that were administered to those less co-operative, or dissident, or whose face simply didn't fit in, was ingeniously odious. An ensemble cast of powerful character actors and the setting at the camp itself adds a ghastliness to the impact of this film that didn't really need to rely on a script to augment the experience of the viewer. Defeatist these ladies weren't - a stoicism and determination crept in and took hold, and that is epitomised by the brave and increasingly shrewd "Marta" as she - and her thousands of fellow inmates - constantly treads on egg shells to survive. You can almost smell the evil coming from this film, and as an example of the gruesome inhumanity mankind can have for it's own brethren, it is spine-tingling. It's not especially graphic nor detailed in it's menace - but the sum of the parts makes for a compelling film that perhaps the warmongers of 2024 could do with watching.

Jakubowska uses documentary techniques that are quite remarkable - location shots, use of actual participants speaking their own languages to build up the experience of women being sent to Auschwitz, the death camp. A great film for Poland, for the Holocaust, for women, for resistance against fascism - but it is not quite clear where the place of the Jews in this is. There is the slogan "You must not allow Auschwitz to be repeated" and the role of the Russians as liberators is emphasised with shots of their planes overhead. Amusing to compare with Wyler's 1942 "Mrs.Miniver" - but "The Last Stage" alas is unavailable.

Wanda Jakubowska's brutal look on Auschwitz was very disturbing and Horrific; this movie is one of the Early depictions of the Brutality of the Holocaust; in 1948, this movie was very shocking and realistic, and Many people didn't watch it, but it was great movie watched if you are in film school or not. I know that this movie is one of my favorite films of all time. To this day, this film is one of the finest films about the Holocaust. The Event This movie is still quoted extensively by succeeding directors, including Steven Spielberg in Schindler's List One of Spielberg his famous and one of the greatest film of all time.

In common with Donskoi's 'The Rainbow' and Rossellini's 'Rome, open City', the effectiveness of Wanda Jakubowska's film lies in its sheer immediacy. Its power to shock has been somewhat diluted by later and more graphic depictions of the Holocaust but it nonetheless remains the blueprint.

Some critics have unfairly referred to it as a 'Hollywoodised' version of life in Auschwitz but the director has understandably chosen to sanitise events so as to make her film more palatable to post-war audiences.

Although Jakubowska and her fellow writer Gerda Schneider, a former 'blocksenior', have based the material on the personal stories of prisoners, many of whom appear in the film, the main female protagonists are all professional actresses. Extremely popular and photogenic Barbara Drapinska as the interpreter, Tatyana Guretskaya as the doctor and the nurse of Antonia Górecka are symbols of resistance whilst the banality of evil is portrayed by Aleksandra Slaska as the overseer, which made her inspired casting in Munk's 'Passenger' fifteen years later.

Filmed in the remains of Auschwitz, individual scenes haunt and no more heartrending use has been made in film of La Marseillaise. It is both a grim reminder of the depths of cruelty to which humans can sink and a testament to the triumph of the human spirit. On a purely technical level, the camerawork, editing and score are exemplary.

In contrast to the film's neo-realistic treatment, the overtly propogandist climax has naturally dated the film immeasurably but must be viewed in its historical context.

The film has rightly been called 'a courageous act of remembrance' but as an unreformed Communist, Jakubowska's subsequently blinkered adherence to a brutally oppressive and discredited ideology does her little credit.

The Last Stage (Ostatni Etap) is about the women who were interned at Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp. Although men were also imprisoned there, this story is mostly about the women. People from all over Europe (including France, Hungry, Poland and Russia) were caged and killed at this camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Some were imprisoned for political reasons and others for simply being a Pole or a Jew. The story is based on the actual experiences of the director (Wanda Jakubowska) and was shot on location just three years after the war, which gives it a feeling of practically being a recreation of the atrocity.

Although we get to know a group of women, one that stands out is Martha Weiss. She is a young Jewish woman that is spared the same fate as her family because she ends up working for the Germans as an interpreter. Those who have a skill useful to the Nazis are spared leaving the camp though the smoke of the chimney. Martha and her friends make the best of their grim situation and are courageous in their acts of defiance.

With their survival threatened, not all of the prisoners are quite so noble. Some of the prisoners work as assistants for the guards to help them do their dirty work. In return, they get a few extra comforts and their own deaths are delayed.

The Last Stage captures the feeling of what it was like at Auschwitz, which is at times surreal with an orchestra of prisoners playing classical music out in the open air while the other prisoners are abused and degraded by their captors.

Ostatni Etap is a classic Polish movie; in Poland, it is in the top 20 of all time box office hits of Polish cinema. The Last Stage depicts a disturbing part of history, but it is better to know what really happened during World War II than it is to pretend it never did, which is why I would recommend everyone to watch this movie.