Gillo Pontecorvo

 Gillo Pontecorvo



Kapo (1960)




RANKED:


1. Kapo (1960)


Not only was Gillo Pontecorvo's 1960 film "Kapo" one of the first films to show some of the more explicit depictions of concentration camps in narrative fiction, it is far more morally complex than the average Holocaust film. The film centers on a 14-year-old Jewish girl who must conceal her identity over years in a German concentration camp during the Second World War. While a typical Holocaust film would have its heroine be a blistering victim of her scenario, "Kapo'"s young heroine's willingness to adapt in order to survive raises moral uncertainties in a situation that would normally be more black-and-white. Of course, the horrific incidents of the film demand our empathy. However, "Kapo" embraces the complexity of its situation of our it's heroine's vacillating moral decisions. 

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