After reading some reviews on this movie, it was easy to make the decision to invest a couple hours of my time watching it and am very glad I did! This started out to be a very depicting picture of the harshness and horrors of WWII concentration camps but slightly different than the typical movies we see in that era as this focused on a camp with just women until about half way through you see some men POW's mixed in with the women and that is when the beautiful love story begins between Nicole and Sasha. Although it takes a while before the love truly blossoms between them, you know as soon as they met that this might go somewhere. Although it ended in tragedy the movie really had me feeling so much for them and perhaps the fact that it did end the way it did, it was what made the movie even better than had it had a happy ending like so many movies do. I have come to realize that movies with happy endings are a dime a dozen and is difficult to recall them, but a movie ending in tragedy like this one did really sticks out from the rest and is one I will not soon forget! I'm not going to tell you about any details as you already know the plot if you are reading this, but I will tell you if you are a fan of beautiful movies, this is one not to be missed. I should warn you though that this movie has a bittersweet ending. On one hand the goal of escape is achieved on the other hand the leading lady is killed.

This film poses impossible questions.If you had the opportunity to forfeit your own life to save the lives of others, would you? If you chose not to, could you live with yourself?Susan Strasberg as Edith/Nicole is nothing short of amazing as a Parisian child of privilege who is forced to evolve from a tearful innocent into a world-weary ball-breaker, and, finally, resigned martyr. Every bit of her performance is believable.The ensemble of actors who surround her resound with verisimilitude -- Emmanuelle Riva as the ultimate concentration-camp realist; Didi Perego as an idealist who struggles to maintain her dignity and refuses to live without it; Gianni Garko as a Nazi soldier willing to be a friend, and Laurent Terzieff as Sascha, who, as Nicole's recruiter into an escape plot, is exceedingly difficult to read in moral terms.I didn't expect to find a film of this grandeur when I stumbled upon it on TCM. (Maybe the fact that often-scruffy introducer Ben Mankiewicz was wearing a suit should have been a tip-off!) It leaves one with much to ponder.In particular it leaves me marveling that just a few decades after the Holocaust this extreme low point in human history seems to be mentioned so rarely.Perhaps this film should be required viewing for anyone who doesn't want history to repeat itself.

A teen Jewish girl and her family are imprisoned in a concentration camp . There, the 14-years-old girl played by Susan Strasberg finds a harsh reality and changes identities with the help of the camp medic and rises to the position of Kapo. This is a good movie about the brutal existence at concentration camps and subsequent breakout from horrible place. This excellent movie deals about extermination center, abuse of camp guards or Kapos who enjoy their power, prisoners committing suicide and the subsequent getaway led by Laurent Terzieff and Russian prisoners . We see the horrors,murders,massacres against the prisoners and Nazis personify evil . Thus , when the incoming transports ,mostly Jews, SS soldiers made instant decisions,those who were fit to labors were sent into the camp, others including the children ,were dispatched immediately to the gas chambers.Finally the inmates broke out in a desperate riot that I believe it can be the concentration camp of Sorbibor, only in which Russian prisoners achieved to escape . The picture reflects perfectly the atrocities as a by-product of sheer Nazi evil . The flick is powered by splendid performances , as Susan Strasberg, -daughter of Lee Strasberg, creator of Actors studio- as suffering starring and Laurent Terzieff is watchable as obstinate Russian soldier wishing freedom. Appears as secondary actor playing a Nazi soldier Gianni Garco or John Garco, future Spaghetti Western hero named Sartana . Shot in magnificent black and white by Sekulovic and Carlo De Palma , Woody Allen's usual cameraman . Sensitive and atmospheric score by Carlo Rustichelli. The film achieved an Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign movie but lost to the ¨Virgin Spring ¨. This extraordinary and unknown film by one of the pioneers of political film , he always interesting director Gillo Pontecorvo. It was one of the first films about the theme of Jewish holocaust and one of the more realistic in its recreation . Gillo subsequently will directed ¨Battle of Argel¨ and ¨Queimada¨.The picture is based on real events and survivor's memories,these are the following : The large death camps were transformed into extermination centers to implement the policy of genocide thought at the Wannsee Conference (1942). There was some minor industrial activity linked to the war effort but the main work was the execution of inmates (as happen with the starring's family) . Victims (as Susan Strasberg and her parents) were brought to the camp in unventilated transports, and all but a handful were gassed after arrival,the gas chambers could accommodate hundred prisoners at one time using Zyclon B which was a crystallized prussic acid which dropped into death chamber ,most of their corpses were burned in open pits (as occurs at the ending of the movie when is opened a large hole to bury unfortunates).

I was not previously aware of this gem. I found it on TCM after it had already been on for about 10 minutes. I kept thinking that the lead actress looked just like SUSAN STRASBERG & for good reason. It was. The fact that it was foreign with sub-titles threw me initially. Very realistic, almost raw, which was surprising considering that this movie was made in 1959.STRASBERG as 'Nicole' works her way up through a concentration camp to become the woman in charge of her fellow prisoners. Strong language, violent situations, but this is a story about WWII, not the 'Enchanted Forest'. Good storyline, good direction, & a terrific performance by SUSAN STRASBERG that was all the more admirable when you realize that she was all of 20,21 when she made this.