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Kapò

Play trailer Poster for Kapò 1964 1h 56m Drama History Play Trailer Watchlist
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57% Tomatometer 7 Reviews 84% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
A prisoner (Susan Strasberg) in a concentration camp collaborates with her Nazi captors in order to survive.

Critics Reviews

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Bosley Crowther New York Times 05/06/2006
1.5/5
Kapo goes completely kaput. Go to Full Review
Christopher Lloyd The Film Yap Jun 9
4.5/5
Susan Strasberg is a Jewish girl who passes herself off as a thief to escape the Nazi death camps, only to wind up as a concentration camp guard in this arresting, largely forgotten film. Go to Full Review
Penelope Gilliatt Observer (UK) 03/06/2024
Rooted as it is in the truth, the film cannot be anything but pitiful, but the manufactured sentiment is that much more affronting. Go to Full Review
Daniel Barnes Dare Daniel 01/31/2020
4/5
At its best, the film offers the clear-eyed objectivity of a journalist, while still establishing a moral outrage. Go to Full Review
Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews 10/23/2014
B-
Curious Holocaust film. Go to Full Review
Sean Axmaker Stream on Demand 04/15/2010
... the documentary detail of the physical recreation and the matter-of-fact evocation of life under such conditions gives it a power beyond the plot... Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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@Cameron11 11/20/2021 A Holocaust film concerning a young Jewish girl who survives the gas chambers and becomes a kapò, a prisoner in charge of keeping the other prisoners in check. Since I saw the brilliant The Battle of Algiers, I was expecting a lot more from this film. The beginning of the film is filmed and directed very well and shows the trauma of these prisoners being separated front their loved ones. However, the film becomes ridiculous when Edith/Nicole befriends a German officer and then falls in love with a Russian war prisoner which is where the film becomes ridiculous and loses all realism for me. Edith/Nicole also has a cat which I felt was also pretty silly. There are some very powerful scenes in the film but these are few and far between in this over dramatic film. The score of the film did not match the emotional scenes in film whatsoever and took me out of the film. I just couldn't get past the point of the film introducing a romantic angle in a concentration camp film. I definitely don't think it deserved an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, though I haven't seen the other nominees. Overall, a film with a strong beginning but fell into ridiculous movie cliches from then on. See more s r @ScottR 02/19/2018 A well made film, but do we need to fictionalize the holocaust with cliche in order to get a point across? See more 08/22/2014 Technically sound and often shocking in its stark portrayal of a concentration camp but ultimately doesn't explore its apparent themes and instead wastes time on a boring love story. The climax and ending are great though. See more 06/10/2013 Released before the decimating force of The Battle of Algiers, Kapò shows a more classical side of Gillo Pontecorvo in terms of form and structure but is in line with the director's controversial choice in subject matter. See more 04/13/2013 Kapò was a privilege prisoner in the concentration camps that was assigned as a SS-guard for the rest of their fellow prisoner. The Kapò was very unpopular among the prisoners because of their brutality. In Gillo Pontecorvo's Kapò, we follow the young Jewish girl, Edith (Susan Strasberg) who has manage to escape from the Jewish camp and over to another camp for political prisoners, thanks to a doctor. They are not as badly treated as the Jews, but it's still very brutal, and when Edith are appointed Kapò, she becomes hated by her fellow prisoners, who supported her in the beginning. Kapò is a typical anti-war movie of its time. Although I would have expected See more 07/24/2011 The grueling difficulty of survival in a Nazi concentration camp. A gritty drama of idealism and sacrifice. See more Read all reviews
Kapò

My Rating

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Movie Info

Synopsis A prisoner (Susan Strasberg) in a concentration camp collaborates with her Nazi captors in order to survive.
Director
Gillo Pontecorvo
Producer
Morris Ergas, Franco Cristaldi
Screenwriter
Gillo Pontecorvo, Franco Solinas
Distributor
Lionex Films Inc.
Production Co
Cineriz, Vides Cinematografica, Zebra Film
Genre
Drama, History
Original Language
Italian
Release Date (Theaters)
Jun 1, 1964, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 12, 2018
Runtime
1h 56m