The Last stage = Ostatni etap [NTSC]

Jakubowska, associated with progressive left-wing groups before the war, survived Auschwitz to collaborate with Schneider, a fellow prisoner, on this film based on German records, memoirs of fellow prisoners and their own memories. Death, inhuman suffering, fear and cowardice blends with the power of friendship, the will to survive, hatred of the torturers and love of fellow-sufferers. ‘At the expense of the story’s unity, it [is] a weave of strands, a number of these snapping in mid-pattern quite unexpectedly … rather as if someone were narrating in a voice choked with emotion…. No documentary could possibly equal this authenticity’. Reference: Boleslaw Michalek, Frank Turaj, The Modern Cinema of Poland, Indiana U.P., 1988, p. 5. Cast includes Wanda Bartowna, Alina Janowska, Zofia Mrozowska, Huguette Faget. In Polish with English subtitles.