The Last Stage

For the Budgie album, see The Last Stage (album).
The Last Stage
Front cover of Polish Film Magazine Nr. 36 with actors from the movie "The Last Stage"
Directed byWanda Jakubowska
Written byWanda Jakubowska
Gerda Schneider
StarringBarbara Drapinska
CinematographyBentsion Monastyrsky
Distributed byFilm Polski
Release date
  • 28 March 1948 (1948-03-28) (Poland)
Running time
81 min. / 110 min. (US)
CountryPoland
LanguagesPolish, German, Russian

The Last Stage (Polish: Ostatni etap) is a 1948 Polish historical drama film directed and co-written by Wanda Jakubowska, depicting her experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.[1] The film was one of the early cinematic efforts to describe the Holocaust. Jakubowska’s film influenced subsequent directors that dealt with the subject, including Alain Resnais, Gillo Pontecorvo and Steven Spielberg.[2] In film criticism, it is often referred to as "the mother of all holocaust films".[3][4][5]

It was Jakubowska's first theatrically-released film and was both a commercial and critical success.[5] It was seen by more than 7.8 million people in Poland and exported to dozens of countries.[5] It also won a BAFTA Award for Best Film from Any Source in 1950.[6]

  1. ^ Reimer, R.C.; Reimer, C.J. (2012). Historical Dictionary of Holocaust Cinema. Scarecrow Press. p. xvii. ISBN 978-0-8108-7986-7.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference brad was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ The mother of all holocaust films?: Wanda Jakubowska's Auschwitz trilogy Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. Volume 24, 2004 - Issue 2
  4. ^ “The Last Stage” by Wanda Jakubowska (1948) Film Screening with Marek Haltof UC San Diego Library. 2021
  5. ^ a b c RETURN TO AUSCHWITZ: WANDA JAKUBOWSKA'S "THE LAST STAGE" (1948) The Polish Review. Vol. 55, No. 1 (2010)
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference sight was invoked but never defined (see the help page).