KAPO (THE CRITERION COLLECTION)

Details

• Release Year: 1960
• Genre: Drama, War
• Plot: Kapo is a black-and-white film that tells the story of a Jewish teenager sent to a concentration camp with her parents. She manages to survive with help from a Jewish doctor who gives her the identity of another woman who had died recently. Thus, Edith becomes Nicole and she is no longer a Jew, at least not in the papers. At first she is very sad about her parents' deaths, but as time passes she realizes she must get out of that mood if she wants to survive. So at 14 she submits to a German officer's advances and is rewarded with privileges; in time she becomes a Kapo, one of the women prisoners who were in charge of disciplining the other women. Though she knows it's the only way to survive, she hides deep remorse behind an expressionless face.
• Cast: Susan Strasberg, Laurent Terzieff, Emmanuelle Riva
• Director: Gillo Pontecorvo
• Runtime: 116 min
• Media Format: movie