With an effectively haunting music score and excellent sound work, the audio side of this film brings the horrors of living in a Holocaust concentration camp - and the changes in values one experiences under harsh conditions - right to the surface. For the most part, Susan Strasberg is superb as an innocent-looking Jewish girl taken prisoner and forced to change her way of thinking. However, with a limited sense of time, her changes in attitude are not gradual enough to be realistic. Everything that happens in the film takes place over months, but the filmmakers make it feel like only a few days. There is also an ill-conceived romantic subplot that weighs against the film too, and it has a tendency to be overly melodramatic at times. Still, a large amount of skill can be seen in the picture, and the panning camera-work also keeps the visual side of the film interesting. The well used music score and Strasberg are certainly worth watching for - it simply falls a little short of being excellent viewing.
