"Kapò" has an unusual pedigree. It's an Italian-French co- production that was filmed in Yugoslavia! It also was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film--which it lost to Ingmar Bergman's "The Virgin Spring".
When the film begins, teenager Edith has been brought to a Nazi death camp along with her parents and many other Jews. Because she was so young, she's been separated and placed with the children-- children who are all going to be liquidated the next day. When Edith learns of this, she runs. But where can you run in a death camp?! She eventually runs into a prisoner who hides her. He also helps her establish a new identity...Nicole, a French kapo. A kapo, in case you didn't know it, was a guard chosen from among the prisoners. This guard was a career criminal or homosexual whose job it was to beat and mistreat their fellow prisoners. So, 'Nicole' was now expected to behave and act like one of these degenerates.
At first, Nicole has great difficulty. After all, she's a young girl and has a decent heart. However, over time, after lots of privation and torment, she adapts to her new role and even seems to excel at being a kapo. What's next?
Up through Edith/Nicole's transformation into a kapo, I was captivated by the film. However, although the final portion is pretty cinematic and 'nice', it also seems to be a bit of a let-down as well as being awfully unrealistic and overly sentimental. How could a person who would do ANYTHING to survive ultimately turn out to be someone who is so full of self-sacrifice? It just didn't make a lot of sense. Additionally, the film was a tad sloppy (such as the sloppy and obviously fake Nazi uniforms and the terrible use of stock footage). As a result, it's a good film but sure seems like it should have been more given its premise.
When the film begins, teenager Edith has been brought to a Nazi death camp along with her parents and many other Jews. Because she was so young, she's been separated and placed with the children-- children who are all going to be liquidated the next day. When Edith learns of this, she runs. But where can you run in a death camp?! She eventually runs into a prisoner who hides her. He also helps her establish a new identity...Nicole, a French kapo. A kapo, in case you didn't know it, was a guard chosen from among the prisoners. This guard was a career criminal or homosexual whose job it was to beat and mistreat their fellow prisoners. So, 'Nicole' was now expected to behave and act like one of these degenerates.
At first, Nicole has great difficulty. After all, she's a young girl and has a decent heart. However, over time, after lots of privation and torment, she adapts to her new role and even seems to excel at being a kapo. What's next?
Up through Edith/Nicole's transformation into a kapo, I was captivated by the film. However, although the final portion is pretty cinematic and 'nice', it also seems to be a bit of a let-down as well as being awfully unrealistic and overly sentimental. How could a person who would do ANYTHING to survive ultimately turn out to be someone who is so full of self-sacrifice? It just didn't make a lot of sense. Additionally, the film was a tad sloppy (such as the sloppy and obviously fake Nazi uniforms and the terrible use of stock footage). As a result, it's a good film but sure seems like it should have been more given its premise.