Product Details

• Actors: Susan Strasberg, Laurent Terzieff, Emmanuelle Riva, Didi Perego, Gianni Garko
• Directors: Gillo Pontecorvo
• Writers: Gillo Pontecorvo, Franco Solinas
• Producers: Franco Cristaldi, Moris Ergas
• Format: Black & White, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Italian
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Criterion
• DVD Release Date: April 13, 2010
• Run Time: 116 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0035ECHJU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,196 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Essential Art House: Kapo" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Before he left his mark on cinema forever with The Battle of Algiers, Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo directed this uncompromising World War II drama about a young Jewish woman (Susan Strasberg) in a Nazi concentration camp who saves herself from death by assuming another’s identity and becoming a ruthless warden. The Oscar-nominated Kapò was one of the first films to depict the horror of the Holocaust, and it does so with brutality and daring emotional complexity.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From Victim to Victimizer - The Degradation of the Nazi Camps, May 16, 2010

By 

Gerard D. Launay (Berkeley, California) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Essential Art House: Kapo (DVD)

This is one of the rare films to show the effect of torture and death in the Nazi camps to destroy an individual's moral compass. A Kapo is a prison trustee and the heroine of this tale - Edith (a 14 year old Jewish girl) becomes a Kapo in her desperate effort to do anything - ANYTHING - to survive. It begins when she sexually services a German soldier. Later she takes on the identity of a non-Jewish prisoner, and finally she becomes one of the Kapos - those prisoners who enforce the rules of the Nazis against the other Jews. Alas, that is the reality of the Kapos, and that reality is rarely depicted in the films of the camps. The descent into moral madness is shown - and it is not a pretty experience. The camps were brutal and the pressures are unimaginable to us today. The movie is a valuable addition to the film record of the Holocaust. Another movie about the process of moral degradation is "The Counterfeiters" but it does not depict the horrors as graphically as "Kapo."
Possibly one of the most realistic holocaust films - other than the documentaries - is "The Grey Zone." These are not easy films to watch...so space them out.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Forget Spielberg, April 21, 2010

By 

Frank Gorshin (Missouri) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Essential Art House: Kapo (DVD)

Gillo Pontecorvo, who also made "The Battle of Algiers," gives us the only kind of movie that treats the Holocaust respectfully and responsibly: in order to survive, a Jewish girl (almost?) sells her soul by assuming another person's identity and becoming a concentration camp guard. Excellent cinematography and authentic moral complexity.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Susan Strasberg shines in Kapo, May 10, 2010

By 

Tom (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essential Art House: Kapo (DVD)

Criterion recently released legendary Italian director, Gillo Pontecorvo's "Kapo" (1959) to DVD.

In the film, doe-eyed Susan Strasberg plays Edith, a lovely, young Jewish girl transported to a Nazi German concentration camp in Poland who takes on a new identity in order to survive, eventually becoming a "kapo," a Funktionshäftling or "prisoner functionary." Strasberg worked on this film immediately after being inexplicably passed over for the movie version of "The Diary of Anne Frank" following her Tony-nominated Broadway portrayal. Her work in "Kapo" as the conflicted "Nicole" is excellent.

As the Red Army advances steadily towards the camp the prisoners wildly anticipate their liberation. A few of the Soviet soldiers are captured by the Germans and interned in the camp, providing impetus for the film's dramatic ending. Pontecorvo, an Italian communist, depicts the Soviets in what can only be described as a highly idealistic manner while history tells us that the Red Army and NKVD often rivaled the Nazis in apportioning death and misery.

"Kapo," one of the very first films to treat the horrors of the Holocaust in a realistic fashion, was nominated for an Academy Award in 1961 as Best Foreign Film. The cinematography of Aleksandar Sekulovic is outstanding. Director Pontecorvo went on to direct the controversial masterpiece, "The Battle of Algiers," in 1966.

But buy this movie for Strasberg, a beautiful and talented actress who never got her due.