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484:. Bradshaw wrote: "The Last Stage is a forthright, vehement film with a confident and almost Hollywoodised way of portraying the nightmare, but with a distinctive emphasis on the leftist Polish patriots and their defiant plan to resist. The existence of the gas chambers themselves is casually, in fact bloodfreezingly, invoked, though they are not in direct sight...The Last Stage is essential both as a film and historical document." In the same year it was described as a "masterpiece" by
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a few key phrases in German and is able to tell the observers that everything they see is a lie and people are dying. Unfortunately the commanders tell the observers that
Eugenia is mentally ill. Later they torture her to find out who taught her the German phrases but Eugenia refuses to tell them and is murdered.
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In the barracks, many of the women are dying and ill. Eugenia, a prisoner and doctor, tries her best to minister to them but is unable to do much as supplies are limited. The women learn that an international commission is coming to the camp to observe the conditions of the prisoners. Eugenia learns
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personnel and German prisoners of war as extras. Several of the actresses were former inmates of the camp themselves. Jerzy
Kawalerowicz, an assistant director on the film said that these women "were wiser than all assistant directors; they knew everything from experience. They saw it. Those former
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Meanwhile, Marta is able to temporarily escape in order to smuggle information about the camps to a resistance broadcaster. When she is returned to the camp, she is tortured and then sentenced to death by hanging. A prisoner frees her wrists and hands her a knife before she is to die, and she tells
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Marta Weiss (Barbara
Drapinska), a Polish Jew, arrives by cattle car to the Auschwitz concentration camp. While there, she catches the attention of the guards as she is multilingual and is put to work as a translator. When she inquires about the factory at the camp, a fellow inmate informs her that
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The film was written by
Jakubowska and Gerda Schneider, also an Auschwitz survivor. Jakubowska initially thought about creating a film documenting her experience at Auschwitz while she was still an inmate at the camp: "The decision to make a film about Auschwitz originated as soon as I crossed the
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camp's gate." Upon her release from the camp she immediately began to work on a script and had completed a first draft by
December 1945. As a survivor, she felt it was her duty and as a director to bear witness and register the magnitude of evil. In 1946 she travelled to
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Eugenia is replaced by
Lalunia, a Polish woman who claims to have been rounded up by mistake and who says she is a doctor though she is actually only a pharmacist's wife. However rather than administer medicine to the women of the camp she distributes them among the
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in exchange for luxuries like clothes and perfume. The nurses' aide searches her room and confiscates the remaining medicine. Lalunia later turns the aide in and has her killed after discovering messages she had written that the
Russians were advancing.
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the camp that the
Russians are coming and slashes the face of the Nazi commander who tortured her. Before the guards can retaliate, planes are heard overhead, and Marta realizes that the Russians have come to liberate them.
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inmates were returning to their places." Czeslaw
Piaskowski, the co-set designer, was also a concentration camp survivor. Jakubowska restored part of the camp for filming and the film crew stayed in the former
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wrote: "The value of the film lies in the ideological stand of its maker, who put her great talent and all her strength into the effort to fight fascism, to unmask its genocidal method."
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in 1949: "...this latest import from Europe is a stark and uncompromising film... it carries a powerful comprehension of the shame and pathos of one of history's darkest hours." In 1996,
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magazine: "The Last Stage accords respect and dignity to the prisoners, shows them as complex human beings, puts them at the centre of the narrative."
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It was
Jakubowska's first theatrically-released film and was both a commercial and critical success. It was seen by more than 7.8 million people in
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it is a crematorium and that the rest of her family likely has been murdered. The character Marta Weiss is based on the true life of
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still required script revisions and sought input from writers, outsiders, political activists and former Auschwitz inmates.
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The film is both set and filmed at Auschwitz and it was made with the participation of local inhabitants of
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Director, Wanda Jakubowska with cinematographer, Bentsion Monastyrsky during filming on 1 November 1947
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THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; ' Last Stop,' Polish Film About a Brutal Nazi Concentration Camp, Opens at World
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Front cover of Polish Film Magazine Nr. 36 with actors from the movie "The Last Stage"
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with a filmic novella of the script translated into Russian and met with
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The mother of all holocaust films?: Wanda Jakubowska's Auschwitz trilogy
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The Last Stage review – cinema’s first look at the horror of Auschwitz
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RETURN TO AUSCHWITZ: WANDA JAKUBOWSKA'S "THE LAST STAGE" (1948)
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in 1948, and it was nominated for Grand International Award at
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189:. The film was one of the early cinematic efforts to describe
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for Best Film from Any Source in 1950. It was reviewed by
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quarters, with Jakubowska staying at the former home of
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The Last Stage: a masterpiece of early Holocaust cinema
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283:. Zhadanov was deeply affected and sent the novella to
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I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians
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CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK;On How to Suffer, and the Reasons
279:. Deeply moved, Kalatozov passed on the novella to
216:and exported to dozens of countries. It also won a
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555:Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
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361:Antonina Gordon-GĂłrecka as Anna, a German nurse
379:Halina Drohocka as Lalunia, replacement doctor
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474:gave the film a five star review in 2023 in
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459:: "Bleaker and more terrifying than "
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321:Barbara Drapinska as Marta Weiss, a
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507:Reimer, R.C.; Reimer, C.J. (2012).
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1249:Films directed by Wanda Jakubowska
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1186:A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things
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511:. Scarecrow Press. p. xvii.
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174:film directed and co-written by
275:, who was then responsible for
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1279:Films about Jews and Judaism
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1130:It's Not the Time of My Life
790:If All the Guys in the World
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358:as Auschwitz Medical Officer
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1229:1940s German-language films
1224:1940s Polish-language films
766:The Unforgettable Year 1919
557:. Volume 24, 2004 - Issue 2
382:Anna Lutoslawska as Urzsula
10:
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569:UC San Diego Library. 2021
16:For the Budgie album, see
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1269:Polish multilingual films
970:Prisoner of the Mountains
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33:
28:
1294:Films about antisemitism
1264:1940s multilingual films
742:The Battle of Stalingrad
328:Wanda BartĂłwna as Helena
897:Shadows of a Hot Summer
814:And Quiet Flows the Don
617:. Vol. 55, No. 1 (2010)
417:The film's premiere in
373:Stefan SrĂłdka as Bronek
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223:
125:81 min. / 110 min. (US)
104:28 March 1948
1284:Films about war crimes
1234:Films set in the 1940s
422:
263:
18:The Last Stage (album)
1254:Crystal Globe winners
830:Nine Days in One Year
416:
261:
1289:Films about genocide
1162:As Far as I Can Walk
435:Venice Film Festival
81:Bentsion Monastyrsky
889:White Bim Black Ear
421:on 23 December 1948
170:) is a 1948 Polish
1299:Films about Nazism
1219:Polish drama films
1034:A Children's Story
865:Taming of the Fire
758:Dream of a Cossack
750:The Fall of Berlin
663:The New York Times
648:The New York Times
635:. 13 February 2023
457:The New York Times
448:The New York Times
437:in 1948 and for a
423:
392:Barbara Rachwalska
264:
183:concentration camp
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1195:
1122:Bob and the Trees
1018:Year of the Devil
873:A Lover's Romance
849:Capricious Summer
782:Salt of the Earth
665:. 25 January 1996
615:The Polish Review
518:978-0-8108-7986-7
425:The film won the
368:Aleksandra ĹšlÄ…ska
356:Edward Dziewonski
341:Maria Vinogradova
334:as Dessa, a Serb
273:Mikhail Kalatozov
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73:Barbara Drapinska
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1214:1948 drama films
1170:Summer with Hope
1082:The Mosquito Net
881:Cantata de Chile
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542:. 9 January 2023
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461:Schindler's List
400:as Record-keeper
350:Stanislaw Zaczyk
203:Steven Spielberg
199:Gillo Pontecorvo
176:Wanda Jakubowska
172:historical drama
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60:Wanda Jakubowska
50:Wanda Jakubowska
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943:No award (1990)
929:A Street to Die
844:No award (1966)
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650:. 22 March 1949
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167:Ostatni etap
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121:Running time
97:Release date
1114:Corn Island
1090:Restoration
1002:Me You Them
986:Streetheart
947:Krapatchouk
921:Leo Tolstoy
905:The Fiancee
439:BAFTA Award
325:interpreter
309:Rudolf Höss
289:Film Polski
218:BAFTA Award
90:Film Polski
46:Directed by
1209:1948 films
1203:Categories
1154:The Father
1050:Sherrybaby
1042:My Nikifor
798:Jagte Raho
494:References
254:Production
108:1948-03-28
56:Written by
913:Red Bells
409:Reception
180:Auschwitz
164:(Polish:
140:Languages
1058:Jar City
962:The Ride
352:as Tadek
343:as Nadya
300:Red Army
296:Oświęcim
70:Starring
893:–
838:Accused
810:–
778:–
723:winners
394:as Elsa
185:during
152:Russian
130:Country
106: (
1189:(2024)
1181:(2023)
1173:(2022)
1165:(2021)
1157:(2019)
1149:(2018)
1141:(2017)
1133:(2016)
1125:(2015)
1117:(2014)
1109:(2013)
1101:(2012)
1093:(2011)
1085:(2010)
1077:(2009)
1069:(2008)
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1053:(2006)
1045:(2005)
1037:(2004)
1029:(2003)
1021:(2002)
1013:(2001)
1010:Amélie
1005:(2000)
997:(1999)
989:(1998)
981:(1997)
973:(1996)
965:(1995)
957:(1994)
949:(1992)
940:(1988)
932:(1986)
924:(1984)
916:(1982)
908:(1980)
900:(1978)
884:(1976)
876:(1974)
868:(1972)
860:(1970)
852:(1968)
841:(1964)
833:(1962)
825:(1960)
817:(1958)
801:(1957)
793:(1956)
785:(1954)
769:(1952)
761:(1951)
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745:(1949)
737:(1948)
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269:Moscow
214:Poland
148:German
144:Polish
134:Poland
419:Paris
243:Kapos
205:. In
685:IMDb
513:ISBN
482:Mubi
445:for
315:Cast
224:Plot
201:and
857:Kes
683:at
429:at
336:POW
1205::
622:^
574:^
527:^
311:.
305:SS
298:,
233:.
197:,
150:,
146:,
713:e
706:t
699:v
521:.
110:)
20:.
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