Within hours of arriving at Auschwitz, Martha Weiss is selected to be an interpreter, while her entire family is killed. She witnesses the cruelty of the guards and the SS mass murders, working with other female prisoners in the infirmary as they await for the Red Army to free them.

Widely celebrated as “the mother of all Holocaust films,” Polish director Wanda Jakubowska’s remarkable work is based on her experiences in Auschwitz, where she returned to shoot as early as 1948. Resilience shines through in this beautifully crafted paean to female solidarity in the darkest times.