The Last Stage

1948 [POLISH]

Action / Drama / History / War

14
IMDb Rating 7.3/10 10 866 866

holocaust (shoah) world war ii auschwitz-birkenau concentration camp concentration camp prisoner based on true story semi-documentary

Plot summary

Poland, during World War II. Martha Weiss, a Jewish woman, arrives at the Auschwitz extermination camp with her family. She is assigned the role of interpreter, but her loved ones are much less fortunate.

Director

Wanda Jakubowska Photo
Wanda Jakubowska

Top cast

Edward Dziewonski Photo
Edward Dziewonski as Auschwitz Medical Officer
Mariya Vinogradova Photo
Mariya Vinogradova as Nadya, a nursing aide
Jadwiga Chojnacka Photo
Jadwiga Chojnacka as Prisoner #2
Barbara Rachwalska Photo
Barbara Rachwalska as Elza
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
975.41 MB
1280*934
Polish 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   pl  
25 fps
1 hr 46 min
Seeds ...
1.77 GB
1480*1080
Polish 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   pl  
25 fps
1 hr 46 min
Seeds ...

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by brogmiller 8 / 10

"One day we shall all leave through the chimney."

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.
Reviewed by ongoam 8 / 10

A Bleak Film about Auschwitz

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.
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