Rent Escape from Sobibor (2018)

Clerical error on paper sleeve - Escape from Sobibor review by JR

Should’nt worry too many people but the paper sleeve has the cast listing from the 1987 Alan Arkin film of the same name and there is no way to tell CP this through their problem page. They are welcome to delete this “review” when they have corrected this

A very good Russian film on the 1943 Sobibor uprising - Escape from Sobibor review by Philip in Paradiso

The film is about the mass escape of detainees from the extermination camp at Sobibor, which took place in October 1943. The camp was located in German-occupied Poland. Most deportees were killed on arrival in the camp's gas chambers, but a few hundred detainees worked at the camp to keep the well-oiled extermination machine going. The camp was guarded by a dozen German officers or so, and a larger number of auxiliaries, who worked as camp guards. (Generally, they came from Eastern Europe - often, Latvia and Ukraine, but not exclusively.) As an extermination camp (as opposed to a concentration camp), Sobibor existed in order to murder as many Jews as possible, as part of the Nazi project. Of the detainees who were not gassed on arrival, and given the terrible conditions at the camp, few survived more than a few months. In total, up to 250,000 people were murdered at Sobibor, making it the 4th-deadliest Nazi camp after Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Belzec.

The uprising was organised by a group of detainees, under the leadership of Alexander 'Sasha' Pechersky (played by Russian actor Konstantin Khabenskiy): he was a Jew from the Soviet Union and had the advantage that he had military experience. The movie is very good at re-creating the conditions in the camp in a realistic way - something very few films have achieved, given the nature of the topic. We get a good idea of the German officers' sadistic and perverse attitude, and also of the divisions among the Jewish detainees (more particularly between the Soviet veterans and the others). There are, inevitably, some inaccuracies. For example, at Sobibor, there were no crematoria: the dead bodies were piled up and set on fire on site, in huge pyres. The film may give the impression that, in Judaism, there is a general prohibition on the consumption of alcohol, which is not the case. (Drunkenness is forbidden and alcohol should have kosher certification.) Many, if not most, of the detainees would probably have looked far thinner, if not skeletal, given their living and working conditions – something that is not apparent in the film. (That is why they died so quickly.) Sobibor was not the only camp that experienced an uprising: so did Treblinka. Occasionally, there is also a pro-Soviet (read: pro-Russian) bias that creeps into the narrative, but this is not a major concern overall.

It is still a very good film, which tells a true and harrowing story very well - a story that should not be forgotten, which gives the lie to the often heard notion that Jews went to slaughter without trying to fight back. When they could, they did, as happened with the heroic uprising of the Warsaw ghetto, also in 1943.

Superb 2018 Russian Holocaust Film with Christopher Lambert (DVD sleeve notes are wrong) - Escape from Sobibor review by PV

As another reviewer has stated, the review notes state this is the 1987 film directed by Jack Gold with Rutger Hauer. This DVD is not that one! I have seen that film and this is so much better than that 1987 film.

This is one of the best WWII camp films I have seen, really original, heart-breaking, fascinating. Researching the true story of some names on Wiki or elsewhere is fascinating as they were real - though some characters are made up for the drama, I think, too.

OK so it is a bit o a mess in parts with the editing.

However, overall, this is a must-see.

4.5 stars rounded up