Ghetto (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | ghetto |
| Country of production | Germany , Lithuania |
| original language | German , English |
| Publishing year | 2006 |
| length | 110 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Audrius Juzenas |
| script | Joshua Sobol |
| production |
Almone Cepiene , Giedrius Guntorius , Audrius Juzenas |
| music | Anatolijus Senderovas |
| camera | Andreas Höfer |
| cut | Judith Futár-Klahn |
| occupation | |
| |
Ghetto is a German-Lithuanian war film from 2006 . The film is based on the eponymous play Ghetto by Joshua Sobol . In 2007 the director Audrius Juzenas was nominated for a Nika Award in the category Best Film of the CIS and Baltics . He received the Lithuanian National Prize in 2006 as “Best Film” and in 2007 at the World Jewish Film Festival “Jewish Eye” in Israel the “Best Feature Film” award.
action
Vilnius , 1941. The German Reich's “ final solution to the Jewish question ” is in full swing. The people are crammed into ghettos , which serve as preliminary stations for their transport to the extermination camps . One of the largest ghettos in Lithuania is the Vilna Ghetto , where 15,000 people are locked in seven walled streets. It is subordinate to the Nazi commandant, SS-Obersturmführer Bruno Kittel, such an art-loving officer - he plays the saxophone and piano - and unpredictable sadistic officer who wants to evade the front line with the help of the Ghetto Command.
First, Kittel orders that the old theater of the ghetto be resumed for his entertainment. Jacob Gens , the head of the ghetto police, has to organize the performances. Those who play survive, at least for a while, the selections for transport to the extermination camps. Kittel falls in love with the extremely talented Jewish singer Hayah. Gens must on the one hand satisfy the expectations of the German rulers and ensure peace and order in the ghetto, on the other hand try everything to ensure that as many people as possible survive as long as possible. Anyone who is productive for the Wehrmacht has a chance.
In the course of the action, Kittel deposes the previous Judenrat , which was responsible for direct ghetto administration, and transfers the entire administrative power to Gens, who thereby receives maximum freedom of action. In this way, Gens ensures that many ghetto residents can work in the workshops of the ghetto inmate Weißkopf, where they mend shot-up Wehrmacht uniforms for renewed deployment and tailor new uniforms. This means that these people are productive for the Nazi war machine and receive the “blue work permit”, which - at least temporarily - ensures survival. Gens tried hard to enlarge Weisskopf's workshops to such an extent that another five hundred people could be declared as working there and thus initially escape the extermination camps.
In return, he proves to Kittel the subservience he considers necessary to maintain his position of power by executing death sentences against three Jewish black market traders who stabbed and robbed a fourth. Gens stands apparently motionless next to the three men, whose cries of agony accompany the process of preparation for the hanging, and he remains unmoved towards the wife of one of the men, although she kneels down before him, embraces his knees and asks for mercy.
Kittel had to show his authorities regular liquidation figures, that is, to prove “progress” in the extermination of the ghetto inmates by shooting in the nearby forest of Ponar or by being transported to the Auschwitz and Majdanek extermination camps . The commandant's office asked Kittel to report on two thousand liquidated people, called "units". The neighboring ghetto Oschmjany , where four thousand people are penned in, is said to be through " selection ", ie. H. the weeding out of non-productive people and their shooting reduced to the number of two thousand inmates.
During an orgy of German officers in the theater, Gens uses Kittel's drunkenness to negotiate him down to five hundred "units" to be killed, taking advantage of the physical attractiveness of the singer Hayah. Gens strips Hayah from her smock and encourages him to touch Hayah's breasts. The smock, numb from excitement and drunkenness, enters into the deal. Five hundred instead of two thousand.
Racial shame is the big "taboo" that must keep Kittel from sleeping with Hayah. Racial shame means the death penalty for an SS officer. Kittel uses a performance of the children's choir in the theater to order Gens to take the surplus children away from all families with more than two children and to deport them to the extermination camps . Gens receives the order to carry out the "selection".
The night after, his courage to face life dies. Burdened by feelings of guilt and the sudden realization that the ghetto offers no chance of survival, he wants to shoot himself. But suddenly a woman appears deep that night, long after the curfew . She reminds Gens of his responsibility for the people of the ghetto and prevents the act.
Two months later, rumors spread that the Russian front is rapidly drawing closer. The hope of liberation by the Red Army is growing. It was heard in Vilnius that there had been an uprising in the Warsaw ghetto . A theatrical performance openly reveals the loyalty of the Vilna ghetto inmates to the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto . When Gens advised against an uprising in Vilnius so shortly before the Germans surrendered, he was reviled on the open stage by the ghetto inmates. It was himself who had given the ghetto policeman Dessler the order to lead the five hundred ghetto inmates from Oschmany to their death.
The Russian front is getting closer. Kittel wants to hasten his recall to the front by a UK position (indispensably exempted from front duty) and begins an inventory of the ghetto library. He takes Gens aside and tells him that he has to answer questions at the Gestapo at 4 p.m. that day . He is accused of having enabled ghetto inmates to escape into the woods to meet the partisans . Gens doesn't deny. Kittel then gives Gens the choice of either shooting himself immediately or being killed by Kittel. Gens holds out his weapon to Kittel, whereupon he initially postpones the killing.
Kittel allows himself one last play. Gens - his execution is only a matter of hours - has to watch. The troupe has to come on stage and play something funny to Kittel. As a reward, they then receive white bread and jam in large vats, which is delicious for the starving people. People eat hesitantly at first, then more and more happily. Thereupon the entrance doors of the stage open. Soldiers with submachine guns come in - they shoot until the magazines are empty. Kittel's boot turns Jacob Gens onto his back.
Everyone is dead, except for Srulik, the ventriloquist. Kittel puts on civilian clothes, takes his saxophone case and leaves - unrecognized.
criticism
“[…] Ferch in particular takes on more and more shape as the film progresses as an internally torn tragic figure who is forced by the Nazi racial madness to send Jews to their deaths in order to save other Jews. […] As poignant as some of the scenes are, one misses a scenic-visual resolution that would do justice to the primarily visual medium of film. "
"Heino Ferch shines as head of the Jewish ghetto police, who uses his position to save as many lives as possible - and has to shake the devil's hand to do so."
“In contrast to Polanski's The Pianist , Ghetto does not paint a realistic picture of life in the Vilna Ghetto. Not in the staging because Juzenas' film remains very close to the play and does not offer an overview of the Vilna ghetto. Especially not in the questions raised here. Because Ghetto is primarily about an ethical dimension [...] So Ghetto [...] is a film that primarily raises moral questions. "
Web links
- Ghetto in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Presentation of the film and photos of the scenes on filmstarts.de
- Further background information on the Vilna Ghetto, Judenrat, work tickets, selections, ghetto police, resistance in the ghetto, mass shootings in Ponar, Song of Ponar, including original photos and witness reports on juden-in-europa.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ "Ghetto: The Power of Art" ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Rheinische Post in the online article, June 5, 2006, accessed on May 28, 2008.
- ↑ kulturnews.de , accessed on May 28, 2008.
- ↑ textezumfilm.de , José García, accessed on May 28, 2008.
