Ostatni etap

original title:
Ostatni etap
other titles:
The Last Stage, The Last Stop, (Die letzte Station)
country / year of production:
Poland / 1948
original length:
110 min. , black/white
premiere:
F: 24 September 1948
genre:
melodrama
based on:
director:
Wanda Jakubowska
film script:
Wanda Jakubowska , Gerda Schneider
producer:
cinematographer:
editor:
composer:
cast (role):
Tatjana Gorecka , Antonina Gorecka , Barbara Drapinska
more:
plot synopsis:
Martha Weiss, a Jew, is sent to Auschwitz concentration camp with her family. On the first day of their arrival Martha is, by a coincidence, chosen as an interpreter, but her entire family is killed. Waiting for the Red Army to deliver them from the prison camp, the film depicts Martha and her friends' struggling life under the tyranny of camp guards and equally bad 'capos', administrative personnel chosen from among the prisoners.
keywords:
concentration camps , Holocaust , escape , women during wartime , authenticity , anti-semitism
war:
Second World War (1939-1945)
literature:
Danuta Karcz. Wanda Jakubowska. Berlin: Henschelverl., 1967 (Theater und Film; Bd.12).
remarks:
The cast and crew included many Holocaust survivors (for example director Wanda Jakubowska)and, most incredibly, the film itself was shot at Auschwitz.
The realism is also enhanced by having the Russian, German, and Polish characters speak their own languages.
availability: