In 1942, in Vilna, the Nazi annihilate 55,000 Jews and squeeze the 15,000 survivors in a seven blocks ghetto. The twenty-two year old sadistic commander Kittel is assigned to administrate the ghetto in the capital of Lithuania, becoming the master of life or death. When he finds the gorgeous Hayyah sneaking with one kilo of beam stolen from the German army, he sentences her to death; but when he is informed that she was a former successful singer, he decides to activate the old theater and promote shows in the ghetto. The Jew Chief of Police Gens uses the theater and a sewing factory to save as much lives as he can; in his ambiguous position, he kills Jews to save lives of others.
Acting
Heino Ferch's crushing ambiguity as the collaborator-killer-savior.
Direction
Juzėnas makes beauty feel like a trap—every frame tightens the noose.
Director
Audrius Juzėnas
Heino Ferch
Gens
Sebastian Hülk
Kittel
Marozsán Erika
Haya
Vytautas Šapranauskas
Weiskopf
Asta Baukutė
Dina Abramowitz
Margarita Žiemelytė
Lina
Darius Meškauskas
Arntgen
Mantas Vaitiekūnas
Yanosh
Edita Užaitė
Bar Hostess
Andrius Žebrauskas
Srulik
Brigita Bublytė
Alvydas Šlepikas
Kruk
Eimutis Kvoščiauskas
Tana
Adrija Čepaitė-Palšauskienė
Uma (as Adrija Cepaite)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real Vilna Ghetto had a legendary theater and library; Nazis actually did exploit prisoner artists for propaganda and 'cultural' events.
DE
