THE LAST STAGE [1947]
year:
- 1947
release date:
- 28 III 1948
runtime:
- 104 min
directed by:
- Wanda Jakubowska
written by:
- Wanda Jakubowska, Gerda Schneider
director of photography:
- Borys Monastyrski
cast:
- Wanda Bartówna [Helena], Huguette Faget [Michele], Tatiana Górecka [doctor Eugenia], Antonina Górecka [Anna, a German communist], Maria Winogradowa [Nadia], Barbara Drapińska [Marta Weiss], Barbara Fijewska [Anielka], Maria Drelichówna [Urszula], Alina Janowska [Jugosłowianka Dessa], Zofia Mrozowska [Gypsy woman], Stanisław Zaczyk [Tadek], Stefan Śródka [Bronek], Elżbieta Łabuńska [prisoner woman], Jadwiga Chojnacka [prisoner woman], Ewa Kunina [prisoner woman], Barbara Rachwalska [Elza, a block leader], Anna Jaraczówna [Frieda, a kapo]
edited by:
- Róża Pstrokońska
music by:
- Roman Palester
production design:
- Roman Mann, Czesław Piaskowski
produced by:
- Przedsiębiorstwo Państwowe Film Polski
executive producer:
- Mieczysław Wajnberger
awards:
-
• IFF Marianske Lazne (Czechoslovakia) 1948 Grand Prix Crystal Globe
• Working Film Festival Gottwaldow (Czechoslovakia) 1948 First Prize
• Award of the World Peace Council in 1950 for Wanda Jakubowska
• Lubusz Film Summer Łagów 1979: award for best director for Wanda Jakubowska
About the film
The first Polish film that was released in more than fifty countries and that was acclaimed by the world press as an outstanding work of art. One of the most shocking films about the Second World War. Filmed in the authentic setting of the camp.
An epic story of the life and struggle of heroic women of different nationalities − prisoners of Auschwitz -Birkenau. The film has a loose structure, the plot includes several parallel stories. Marta, a Polish Jew, is a translator, she is involved in the camp resistance movement; she is killed while trying to escape. Russian prisoner − doctor Eugenia, who is trying to actually save the sick, is subjected to torture and executed. Anna, a German Communist, is put in the camp’s dark cell.
The tragic fate of the prisoners, the savagery and sadism of the German camp crew; the synthetic portrayal of the reality of Auschwitz was made by a former prisoner of Auschwitz − Wanda Jakubowska.
Donata Zielińska, Leksykon polskich filmów fabularnych, Warszawa 1996
