The result is an eerie and odd movie, no doubt, but it’s easy to see why Lesiewicz felt compelled to finish the project, as Munk’s motion footage, which comprises the story within the frame narrative created by the stills, is so captivating. A wife, Liza (Aleksandra Slaska), is returning to Germany for the first time, years after the conclusion of WWII. On the ocean liner sailing for mainland Europe, she spots a woman who brings up a well of emotions within her. The fellow passenger resembles a former inmate at Auschwitz, where Liza served as a guard during the fighting.
She
is moved enough by the sight of the woman to tell her husband more about her
experiences than she has ever divulged before, and conveys the story of Marta (Anna
Ciepielewska), a political prisoner with whom she had a special
relationship. According to her story,
Marta served on her prisoner detail, whose duty it was to catalogue incoming
items that were confiscated from Jews as they were marched to the gas
chambers. Marta had served as her
assistant, and Liza felt that the two had a bond that surpassed traditional
guard/prisoner relations. She even
arranged for Marta to have visits with her fiancé, also a prisoner at the notorious
death camp. However, she was unable to
save the two lovers when they were cited for infractions, and both to her
knowledge were killed by a firing squad.
This
explanation satisfies Liza’s husband and justifies her reaction to the woman,
and he accepts his wife’s role in the war as an evil of a time passed. However, privately Liza is forced to deal
with her emotions by recounting to herself, and to the audience, a more
accurate depiction of the events within the camp involving Marta. Much of her recollection focuses on her conscious
desire to psychologically control and dominate her inmate assistant. This battle of intellects and wills
constitutes the primary dramatic tension within the inner story, which is also
peppered with the atrocities that perpetually surround the two women as their
relationship grows and shifts. At times
Marta seems to genuinely rely on Liza, but is it only because she wishes to
avoid the ultimate horrors of the camp?
What
makes this narrative fascinating is that it focuses on the attempted domination
of one specific “undesirable” by an SS officer, as opposed to the overarching elimination
of 8 million people that was the “final solution.” Steven Spielberg hit a similar note with his
examination of the camp commandant infatuated by his Jewish maid in Schindler’s List (1993), but this
relationship isn’t so much sexual as it is emotionally intimate. The two women’s interactions, as well as the portrayal
of the odd and torturous rituals that take place within the camp, give this
film a unique place amongst pictures that focus on the holocaust.
As
an unfinished work, there are more questions brought about by Passenger than answers. Was the woman on the ship really Marta? Could she have survived? Does this encounter reinitiate
Liza’s political hatred? Also to be
questioned is the film’s artistic credibility.
Yes, it is an arresting picture that covers difficult subject matter in
a unique way. But would if have been canonized
if Munk had finished it as he intended?
Do the open questions give it more weight? It’s difficult to know whether the film would
have been truly impressive were it not for the artistic compromises brought on
my Munk’s death, which significantly alter its tone.
Language:
Polish
Runtime:
62 Minutes
Available
@Youtube.com
Grade:
2.5 Hats Off
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