The Last Stage (1948)
(Ostatni etap)
Country: POL
Technical: bw 105m
Director: Wanda Jakubowska
Cast: Barbara Drapinska, Tatyana Guretskaya, Alina Janowska
Synopsis:
At the Auschwitz women's camp, a woman who gives birth has her baby euthanised by the camp doctor and joins the hospital staff, witnessing self-sacrifice, informing, and the first tentative steps towards preventing the German liquidation of the camp in advance of the Red Army.
Review:
Poland lost no time in producing this early holocaust movie, one that is adept at showing the multi-ethnic makeup of the detainees, and the carefully engineered pecking order that led some capos to exploit the misery of their fellows. It pulls few punches, though it does end on a fantastically glorious note of individual heroism that smacks of Communist propaganda (an earlier speech condemning Nazi atrocities is revealed to be that of Joseph Stalin, who murdered just as many of his own people). The performances, direction and camerawork are all remarkably good, considering how soon it was after the war, however.
(Ostatni etap)
Country: POL
Technical: bw 105m
Director: Wanda Jakubowska
Cast: Barbara Drapinska, Tatyana Guretskaya, Alina Janowska
Synopsis:
At the Auschwitz women's camp, a woman who gives birth has her baby euthanised by the camp doctor and joins the hospital staff, witnessing self-sacrifice, informing, and the first tentative steps towards preventing the German liquidation of the camp in advance of the Red Army.
Review:
Poland lost no time in producing this early holocaust movie, one that is adept at showing the multi-ethnic makeup of the detainees, and the carefully engineered pecking order that led some capos to exploit the misery of their fellows. It pulls few punches, though it does end on a fantastically glorious note of individual heroism that smacks of Communist propaganda (an earlier speech condemning Nazi atrocities is revealed to be that of Joseph Stalin, who murdered just as many of his own people). The performances, direction and camerawork are all remarkably good, considering how soon it was after the war, however.
(Ostatni etap)
Country: POL
Technical: bw 105m
Director: Wanda Jakubowska
Cast: Barbara Drapinska, Tatyana Guretskaya, Alina Janowska
Synopsis:
At the Auschwitz women's camp, a woman who gives birth has her baby euthanised by the camp doctor and joins the hospital staff, witnessing self-sacrifice, informing, and the first tentative steps towards preventing the German liquidation of the camp in advance of the Red Army.
Review:
Poland lost no time in producing this early holocaust movie, one that is adept at showing the multi-ethnic makeup of the detainees, and the carefully engineered pecking order that led some capos to exploit the misery of their fellows. It pulls few punches, though it does end on a fantastically glorious note of individual heroism that smacks of Communist propaganda (an earlier speech condemning Nazi atrocities is revealed to be that of Joseph Stalin, who murdered just as many of his own people). The performances, direction and camerawork are all remarkably good, considering how soon it was after the war, however.