Escape from Sobibór

Alan Arkin Director: Jack Gold Jack Gold

Overview

During WWII, Sobibor was a notorious Nazi death camp. This gripping, fact-based drama chronicles the courage of an inmate who managed the largest escape from such a place. Thanks to him, over 300 prisoners were freed.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/10/2020
UPC:	0089353404529
Original Release:	1987
Source:	Liberation Hall
Region Code:	0
Presentation:	[Color]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Time:	2:23:00
Sales rank:	1,156

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Alan Arkin	Leon Feldhendler
Joanna Pacula	Luka
Rutger Hauer	Lt. "Sasha" Pechersky
Hartmut Becker	Sgt. Wagner
Jack Shepherd	Itzhak Lichtman
Emil Wolk	Samuel
Simon Gregor	Stanislaw "Shlomo" Szmajzner
Robert Gwilym	Chaim Engel
Kurt Raab	Sgt. Frenzel
Hugo Bower	Sgt Beckmann
Klaus Grunberg	Sgt. Bauer
Wolfgang Bathke	Sgt. Hurst
Henning Gissel	Sgt. Fallaster
Henry Stolow	Lt. Niemann
Ullrich Haupt	Sgt. Wolf
David Miller	Mundek
Ned Vukovic	Morris
Sara Sugarman	Naomi
Peter Jonfield	Kapo Sturm
Mihailo "Misa" Janketic	Kapo Berliner

Technical Credits

Reginald Rose

Jack Gold	Director
Howard Alston	Co-producer
Georges Delerue	Score Composer
Radmila Ivatovic	Makeup
Priscilla John	Casting
Keith Palmer	Editor
Reginald Rose	Screenwriter
Martin Starger	Executive Producer
Allan Starski	Production Designer
Ernest Vincze	Cinematographer
Doreen Watkinson	Costumes/Costume Designer

Editorial Reviews

This 1987 TV miniseries tells the true story of imprisoned Jews who devise and execute an elaborate escape plan. The production is gripping throughout. The setting is a Nazi extermination camp in a forest near the Polish village of Sobibór. There, 250,000 Jews, mostly from Poland and Russia, died in five gas chambers during the camp's operation between May 1942 and October 1943. The story engrosses the audience the moment the principal characters arrive at the camp and suffer brutal treatment by SS and Ukrainian guards. Only captives with useful skills are spared; the rest proceed to the gas chambers. In time, the traumatized prisoners, led by Leon Feldhendler (Alan Arkin), decide to escape -- but how? Then, Russian soldiers under the command of Alexander Percherski (Rutger Hauer) arrive as prisoners, throw in with Feldhendler, and provide the technical and military know-how to hatch an escape plan. Arkin and Hauer both perform brilliantly as co-leaders of the uprising, the largest and most successful of its kind in World War II. Simon Gregor as Shlomo Szmajzner also deserves high praise for his portrayal of a callow boy who learns how to cozen his Nazi captors and eventually kill them. The suspense builds gradually. Then the film explodes with action. Knives, axes, and guns give the Nazis their due as communication lines are cut and prisoners run hell-bent for freedom. Escape From Sobibór is one of the best escape films made about World War II.

All Movie Guide - Mike Cummings