Kapò (1959)

Directed by

Gillo Pontecorvo

Genre

drama film, war film

Country

Yugoslavia, France, Italy

Runtime

1h 56m

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 81 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A young Jewish woman is sent to a Nazi concentration camp. She is forced to become a kapo, a prisoner who oversees other prisoners, to survive.

bleakintensehistoricalsoberingunsettlingslow-burngrimpainful

What happens

Kapò (Italian: [kaˈpɔ]) is a 1960 historical war drama film directed and co-written by Gillo Pontecorvo. It was one of the first narrative films to deal explicitly with the subject of the Holocaust, with graphic depictions of Nazi concentration camps which made it controversial at the time. A co-production of Italian, French, and Yugoslavian companies, the film stars American actress Susan Strasberg, along with Laurent Terzieff, Emmanuelle Riva, Didi Perego and Gianni Garko. The title refers to a prisoner functionary in the Nazi concentration camps. The film premiered at the 21st Venice International Film Festival, and was released to Italian theatres on September 29, 1960. It received mixed reviews from critics. While some praised the filmmaking, others, particularly Jacques Rivette, criticized Pontecorvo's decision to dramatize the Holocaust, unprecedented at the time. In the United States, the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film. The film paid for its cost in Italy alone. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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