Transportation from paradise
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Transportation from paradise |
| Original title | Transport z ráje |
| Country of production | Czechoslovakia |
| original language | Czech |
| Publishing year | 1963 |
| length | 93 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Zbyněk Brynych |
| script |
Zbyněk Brynych Arnošt Lustig based on the story "Night and Hope" by Arnošt Lustig |
| production | Jirí Pokorný |
| music | Jirí Sternwald |
| camera | Jan Čuřík |
| cut | Miroslav Hájek |
| occupation | |
| |
Transport from Paradise is a Czechoslovak Holocaust drama film directed in 1962 by Zbyněk Brynych .
action
Spring 1944. The focus is on a short period of time in the camp life of the Theresienstadt ghetto in the German-occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The opening scenes show a supposedly “normal” camp life with jazz music, to which excited young men and girls move in a dance step. The streets are lively, the men look after the women, nothing really looks threatening. But there is also a parallel world, that of the underground and resistance, where men and women secretly run a small print shop, print anti-Nazi posters and stick them secretly on the walls. Behind this backdrop of completely normal madness, something is brewing: Once again, a prisoner transport is being prepared to go to the Auschwitz extermination camp , which is only a day or two away . A member of the Jewish Council of Elders, David Löwenbach, has no illusions about where the death train will go and then refuses to sign the list of names intended for the gas chambers in Auschwitz. As a consequence, the Germans lock him up with the threat of "special treatment" and appoint Ignac Marmulstaub as his successor. Since he sees no other choice for himself, he signs instead of Löwenbach.
At the same time, SS-General Josef Knecht traveled to Theresienstadt, a determined officer who preferred to shout out his orders. He wants to inspect the concentration camp because a delegation from the Red Cross has announced that it will soon be there. The ghetto has been literally spruced up, and cameramen from the German newsreel have also come to shoot “documentary” scenes from the city that will later find their way into a film about the alleged “model camp”. The prisoners were made up to be camera-friendly and had to recite sentences they had learned by heart. With fear of death in their voices, they should make believable how well they like it in “their” own city. Suddenly there is an unexpected incident. In one of the lanes of the camp a poster was put up that read: "Death to fascism!" Hitler's servant is furious and wants to make an example of all the residents of the ghetto. He is after a comprehensive "purge". In the event of roll call, every inmate must report as a "pig Jew". According to the criminal plan, a total of 6,000 Jews are to be brought to Auschwitz-Birkenau, a “transport from paradise” to hell. The girl Lízinka suspects that the ghost of what appears to be “normality” will soon come to an end and wants to sleep with as many men as possible again before she is deported. Hardly anyone will escape the transport, and so Löwenbach decides to volunteer. Marble dust, on the other hand, remains - and therefore makes the greatest reproaches.
Production notes
Transport from Paradise came to Czech cinemas in 1962 or 1963 and was released in East Germany on October 25, 1963.
At the Locarno International Film Festival in July 1963, the production received the Grand Prize (“Goldenes Segel”).
Reviews
“The film deliberately dispenses with the appearance of authenticity in the image and in the decoration - probably from the insight that the reality of Theresienstadt cannot be“ recreated ”. And it is precisely because of this and a clever distribution of the accents that it achieves a kind of model-like urgency. Occasionally, some effects interfere with the direction, but they do not significantly affect the overall impression. "
“A fictional film as a document of National Socialist gentlemen's morality as it was used in the Theresienstadt ghetto. Through the careful elaboration of the different types of guilty and complicit and the honest, unpathetic portrayal of the Jews a haunting, serious memorial against what happened. "
“Another realistic film about the insidious and brutal way in which the Jews of Central Europe were persecuted by the Nazis during World War II is presented to us through Zbynek Brynych's award-winning Czechoslovak film 'Transport from Paradise'… (…)… it gathers terrifying images of the brutal treatment of crowds by the Nazis, under the devious pretext of serious concern for them, before they are transported to the extermination camps. (...) Mercilessly once, in a pictorial statement that seems almost Kafka-esque - huge piles of numbered suitcases and close-ups of fearful and grotesque faces are shown. Mr. Brynych makes it clear to us that these horrific mass gatherings are continuing and lets us feel the cold grip of terror in these intended preparations for genocide. "
"Brynych's most important feature film in 1963 was the impressive drama about the Theresienstadt concentration camp," Transport from Paradise "."
Individual evidence
- ↑ Reclams Filmführer, by Dieter Krusche, collaboration: Jürgen Labenski . P. 562. Stuttgart 1973.
- ↑ Transport from Paradise. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 18, 2015 .
- ↑ Original: Another vivid, realistic picture of the treacherous and brutal ways in which the Jews of Middle Europe were persecuted by the Nazis during World War II is given in Zbynek Brynych's prize-winning Czechoslovak film, "Transport From Paradise" ... (... ) it gathers more awesome images of the Nazis' brutal treatment of people en masse, under the perfidious pretext of being solicitous toward them before they are transported to the extermination camps. (...) Relentlessly then, and in a style of pictorial statement that is almost Kafkaesque — featured by huge piles of numbered suitcases and close-up faces that are anguished and grotesque — Mr. Brynych brings us to realize the horrible herding that is going on and to sense the cold grip of terror in these purposeful preparations for genocide .
- ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 1: A - C. Erik Aaes - Jack Carson. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 594.
Web links
- Transport from Paradise in the Internet Movie Database (English)