''Kapò'' () is a 1960 Italian film about the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

directed by

Gillo Pontecorvo Gilberto Pontecorvo (; 19 November 1919 – 12 October 2006) was an Italian filmmaker associated with the political cinema movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He is best known for directing the landmark war docudrama ''The Battle of Algiers'' (19 ...

. It was nominated for the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

as Best Foreign Language Film. It was an Italian-French co-production filmed in

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

Plot

Naive 14-year-old Edith ( Susan Strasberg) and her Jewish parents are sent to a

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

, where the latter are killed. Sofia (

Didi Perego Didi Perego (13 April 1935 – 28 June 1993) was a statuesque Italian actress who appeared in more than 80 films and television shows. She made her film debut in 1959's '' Death of a Friend''. The same year, she starred in perhaps her best-know ...

), an older, political prisoner, and a kindly camp doctor save her from a similar fate by giving her a new, non-Jewish identity, that of the newly dead Nichole Niepas. As time goes by, she becomes hardened to the brutal life. She first sells her body to a German guard in return for food. She becomes fond of another guard, Karl (

Gianni Garko Gianni Garko (born Giovanni Garcovich; 15 July 1935), often billed as John Garko and occasionally Gary Hudson, is an Italian actor who found fame as a leading man in 1960s Spaghetti Westerns. He is perhaps best known for his lead role as Sartana ...

). The fraternization helps her become a ''kapo'', one of those put in charge of the other prisoners. She thrives while the idealistic Sofia grows steadily weaker. When she falls in love with Sascha (

Laurent Terzieff Laurent Terzieff (27 June 1935, in Toulouse – 2 July 2010, in Paris) was a French actor. Biography Terzieff was the son of French ceramist prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

, Edith is persuaded to play a crucial role in a mass escape, turning off the power. Most of the would-be escapees are killed, but some get away. Edith is not one of them. As she lies dying, she tells Karl, "They betrayed us, Karl, they betrayed both of us." She dies saying the traditional Jewish prayer

Shema Yisrael ''Shema Yisrael'' (''Shema Israel'' or ''Sh'ma Yisrael''; he , שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל ''Šəmaʿ Yīsrāʾēl'', "Hear, O Israel") is a Jewish prayer (known as the Shema) that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewi ...

Cast

* Susan Strasberg as Edith, alias Nicole Niepas *

Laurent Terzieff Laurent Terzieff (27 June 1935, in Toulouse – 2 July 2010, in Paris) was a French actor. Biography Terzieff was the son of French ceramist Emmanuelle Riva Emmanuelle Riva (; 24 February 1927 – 27 January 2017) was a French actress, best known for her roles in the films ''Hiroshima mon amour'' (1959) and '' Amour'' (2012). Riva was nominated for a BAFTA Award for her role in ''Hiroshima mon ...

as Terese *

as Sofia *

as Karl * Annabella Besi as Carole *

Graziella Galvani Graziella Galvani (27 June 1931 – 25 August 2022) was an Italian stage, television and film actress. Life and career Born in Milan, Galvani formed at the drama school of the Piccolo Teatro in her hometown, and participated in several plays ...

as Isabelle *

Paola Pitagora Paola Pitagora (born 24 August 1941) is an Italian film actress. She has appeared in 50 films since 1959. Biography Born in Parma, Pitagora attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and the acting school by Alessandro Fersen. In 1960 s ...

as Georgette * Eleonora Bellinzaghi *

Bruno Scipioni Bruno Scipioni (29 July 1934 – 5 December 2019) was an Italian actor and voice actor. Biography Born in Rome, Scipioni graduated in accountancy and then, in 1958, he attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. He started his film car ...

Dragomir Felba Dragomir Felba ( sr-cyr, Драгомир Фелба; 7 July 1921 – 13 July 2006) was a Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, s ...

as Salomon Lejtman * Dušan Perković as Commandant

Critical reception

In their book ''Foreign Film Guide'', authors

Ronald Bergan Ronald Bergan (né Ginsberg, 2 November 1937 – 23 July 2020) was a South African-born British writer and historian. He was contributor to ''The Guardian'' (from 1989) and lecturer on film and other subjects as well as the author (or co-author) ...

and

Robyn Karney Robyn Karney (4 January 1940 – 7 December 2017) was a South African-born London-based film writer and critic. Karney was born in Cape Town, but raised in Johannesburg. A stage manager for the theatre companies of Brian Brooke and Leonard Schach ...

wrote:

What does one say about this effort? Pontecorvo has jam-packed his film with every kind of tear-jerking cliché on offer and entrusted the debasement and regeneration of his heroine to a sadly inept actress. The result is an overheated melodrama which does a grave disservice to the enormity of its subject, although the horrors of the camps are realistically portrayed".

In an article for ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', philosopher

Bernard-Henri Lévy Bernard-Henri Lévy (; ; born 5 November 1948) is a French public intellectual. Often referred to in France simply as BHL, he was one of the leaders of the " Nouveaux Philosophes" (New Philosophers) movement in 1976. His opinions, political acti ...

wrote:

Pontecorvo earned "the deepest contempt" of French director
Jacques Rivette Jacques Rivette (; 1 March 1928 – 29 January 2016) was a French film director and film critic most commonly associated with the French New Wave and the film magazine '' Cahiers du Cinéma''. He made twenty-nine films, including '' L'amour f ...
in an article in '' Cahiers du cinéma'' nearly 50 years ago for a scarcely more insistent shot in the 1959 film "''Kapo''." The shot was of the raised hand of actress
Emmanuelle Riva Emmanuelle Riva (; 24 February 1927 – 27 January 2017) was a French actress, best known for her roles in the films ''Hiroshima mon amour'' (1959) and '' Amour'' (2012). Riva was nominated for a BAFTA Award for her role in ''Hiroshima mon ...
, her character Terese electrocuted on the barbed wire of the concentration camp from which she was trying to escape. The criticism hung over Pontecorvo until his dying day. He was ostracized, almost cursed, for a shot, just one.Bernard-Henri Lévy
"Hollywood's Nazi Revisionism"
trans. Janet Lizop, ''Wall Street Journal'', March 5, 2010.

Lévy contrasted this reaction to one shot with what he asserted is the garish exploitation of Nazi history in ''

Inglourious Basterds ''Inglourious Basterds'' is a 2009 war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger and Mélanie Laurent. The film tells an altern ...

'' (2009) and ''

Shutter Island ''Shutter Island'' is a novel by American writer Dennis Lehane, published by HarperCollins in April 2003. It is about a U.S. Marshal who goes to an isolated hospital for the criminally insane to investigate the disappearance of a patient who is ...

'' (2010).

References

External links

* * * *
Column « De l'Abjection » by Jacques Rivette (1961) devoted to Pontecorvo's ''Kapo''
'' L'oBservatoire'' site. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kapo 1960 films Holocaust films

Kapò ''Kapò'' () is a 1960 Italian film about the Holocaust directed by Gillo Pontecorvo. It was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film. It was an Italian-French co-production filmed in Yugoslavia. Plot Naive 14-year-old Edit ...

French black-and-white films Italian black-and-white films Yugoslav black-and-white films Yugoslav war drama films Films directed by Gillo Pontecorvo Films scored by Carlo Rustichelli Kapos (concentration camp) Italian war drama films Italian World War II films Yugoslav World War II films

Plot

Cast

Critical reception

See also

References

External links