The first 8 minutes of this black-and-white movie are not representative for the rest of the movie. Since the director of this movie died before he could complete this movie, it is explained that the movie is shown to you in its uncomplete state. First of all they show some photos of the director and start the movie with a photo-based introduction. I assume this is done because this part of the movie was not filmed yet when the director passed away. And this introduction of around 8 minutes is not representative for the rest of the movie. So please take this into account when you start watching this movie.
During watching the movie, other unfinished scenes are also substituted with photos and a voice-over that explains what the original idea was for those missing scenes. But this will be only short "interruptions" that are unlike the first 8 minutes.
What though is completed, are all scenes in the Auschwitz concentration camp. And I must say that it is excellent material. Of all the movies and series that I have ever seen, this movie seems to contain the most accurate of how the camp really looked like. The layout of the ramp, the way arriving people had to walk to get to the crematoria, the downwards stairs that functioned as the entrance of the gas chambers... they are all like the real Auschwitz.
Even the infamous and much feared "Block 11" - the so-called "death block" - is shown in the movie. This block is where many people ended up being killed or tortured to death. The movie also has an accurate view of the "death wall", which is used for shooting people. And it is the first time that I see the so-called "standing cells", with its low doors that people had to crawl through to enter. Cells where people were left standing many days with no possibility whatsoever to lie down. And people where left in such conditions - in the dark and even without food - until they died an agonizing death.
One may think that it is an unattractive watch because the movie is black-and-white. Another pretty valid argument may be that the movie is unfinished and with its 1 hour duration doesn't even meet the 1.5 hour duration of the typical feature-length movie. But I think we have here an excellent opportunity to see how life in Auschwitz may have been like. So I therefore think that it belongs in any serious list of WW2 movies.
I am not going to give away the details of the storyline itself, which would spoil the watch. I though want to say, what I think that the purpose of this movie is. And it is to show how warped the reality of some SS camp guards is. And that, even many years after the war ended.
I really get the idea that the director wants to show us that there were SS guards that saw some people as their personal pets (or personal slaves). It is those same guards that "play around" with these "pets" until they lose interest and kill them. As such, this movie shows not only the overal inhumane conditions of life in Auschwitz, but also the large differences in how people were treated.
Combined with some very decent acting, this movie deserves a score of 6.5/10, thereby just barely making it an IMDb rating of 7 stars. And of course I needed to include the facts that it is incomplete. But this score is in my opinion very decent for its current state.
Were it not for the untimely death of the director, I think we would have ended up with an 8-star IMDb movie that would have been known to a large public.
