''Kapò'' () is a 1960

historical History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed and co-written 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 one of the first narrative films to deal explicitly with the subject of

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

, with graphic depictions of

Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps (), including subcamp (SS), subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe. The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately af ...

which made it controversial at the time. A co-production of Italian, French, and Yugoslavian companies, the film stars American actress

Susan Strasberg Susan Elizabeth Strasberg (May 22, 1938 – January 21, 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actress. Thought to be the next Audrey Hepburn, Hepburn-type Ingénue, ingenue, she was nominated for a Tony Award at age 18, playing the ti ...

, 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 The 21st annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 24 August to 7 September 1960. French writer Marcel Achard was the Jury President for the main competition. The Golden Lion was awarded to '' Tomorrow Is My Turn'' directed Andr� ...

, 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 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 fo ...

, 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.

Plot

Edith, a naïve 14-year-old French Jew living in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, and her parents are sent to a

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

, where the latter are killed. Sofia, 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 Nicole Niepas. As time goes by, she becomes hardened to the brutal life. She first sells her body to a German SS guard in return for food. She becomes fond of another guard, Karl. 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, a Russian

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person 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 war for a ...

, 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''; , “Hear, O Israel”) is a Jewish prayer (known as the Shema) that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. Its first verse encapsulates the monothe ...

Cast

Production

Pontecorvo and his screenwriter Franco Solinas were inspired to make the film after reading

Primo Levi Primo Michele Levi (; 31 July 1919 – 11 April 1987) was a Jewish Italian chemist, partisan, Holocaust survivor and writer. He was the author of several books, collections of short stories, essays, poems and one novel. His best-known works i ...

's memoir ''

If This Is a Man ''If This Is a Man'' ( ; United States title: ''Survival in Auschwitz'') is a memoir by History of the Jews in Italy, Jewish Italians, Italian writer Primo Levi, first published in 1947. It describes his arrest as a member of the Italian resista ...

''.''Intervista a Gillo Pontecorvo'', in Contenuti speciali del DVD ''Kapò'', Cristaldifilm, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2003 The writing process was a tense one, as Pontecorvo and Solinas had contrasting ideas on what the film should be - Pontecorvo believed Solinas' script was too melodramatic and nearly broke off their partnership before the intervention of producer Franco Cristaldi. Pontecorvo also disliked the ending, having preferred Edith survive and contemplate her solitude and sense of complicity.''Scene commentate dal regista'', Contributi speciali in DVD ''Kapò''

Claudia Cardinale Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale (; born 15 April 1938), known as Claudia Cardinale (), is an Italian actress. Born and raised in La Goulette, a neighbourhood of Tunis, Cardinale won the "Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia" competition ...

was considered for the lead role before

, who was known for playing

Anne Frank Annelies Marie Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – February or March 1945)Research by The Anne Frank House in 2015 revealed that Frank may have died in February 1945 rather than in March, as Dutch authorities had long assumed"New research sheds new li ...

in the Broadway play ''The Diary of Anne Frank'', was cast. This later caused problem on set, because the American actress did not speak Italian, and Pontecorvo had to communicate with her through an interpreter. Filming took place at Jadran Studios in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

. The culture clash between the Italian and Yugoslavian crews also caused problems. Pontecorvo was forced to work with a Yugoslavian cinematographer, Aleksandar Sekulović, whose smooth, "Hollywood-style" photography he found inappropriate for the subject matter, much preferring the ''vérité''-style photography by the Italian second unit cameramen.

Reception

In their book ''Foreign Film Guide'', authors Ronald Bergan and Robyn Karney 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'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'', philosopher

Bernard-Henri Lévy Bernard-Henri Georges 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, politi ...

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 fo ...
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, 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 epic film, epic war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars an ensemble cast including Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger ...

'' (2009) and '' Shutter Island'' (2010).

References

External links