Page 61 - Centrum Dialogu im. Marka Edelmana w Łodzi. Time of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto. Film images.

solitary confinement. In one of the scenes, we see a boy,
who had tried to escape again, executed. Actually it is
only Tadek who can count on special treatment, since
one of the camp doctors announced that his cranium is
of Nordic shape. Augustin, who has already taken inter-
est in the boy’s looks, awaits a confirmation of this in-
formation, planning to adopt Tadek. However, the man’s
weakness, his occasional signs of human feelings are
often crushed by his heartlessness. Augustin punishes
Tadek several times, trying to teach him German disci-
pline. He beats him cruelly and puts him in solitary con-
finement for a few days. On another occasion, seeing
the boy’s health worsening, he gives him medicine and
takes care of him. Augustin’s character illustrates the
mechanisms of dehumanization, which suppress em-
pathy and replace it with mindless brutality. Remnants
of human feelings are pushed aside and the man’s be-
haviour is regulated by some ‘uber-human’ mechanism
that allows the Nazis to silence their conscience and ful-
fill their duties.
Other images of The Face of an Angel feature the
children’s attempts to escape from the everyday routine
and violence. In the rare moments when no guard is
near, the boys play. The authors have included se-
quences of visions which evoke life outside the camp.
Tadek repeatedly dreams about his father. We do not
know whether his visions are his memories or just an
expression of the boy’s longings, independent of current
time. Visual sequences are incorporated into the narra-
tive differently from retrospections evident in classical
cinema.
The above description of the film suggests that it be-
longs to classical realistic cinema with its typical con-
centration on the fates of individual characters, clear
depiction of their views, conflicts they participate in and
setting them in a chronological narrative. That realism,
however, is interrupted by numerous formal tricks used
by the authors.
The representation strategy of The Face of an Angel
is revealed as early as in the opening credits. Indistinct
figures appear in the frame. Images which are very
grainy, as if the picture was over-magnified, blur the out-
lines and make it hard to recognize featured shapes.
We see the vague silhouette of a uniformed man and
some looped photographs of anonymous men and

Holocaust and Representation. Notes on three films about the Łódź ghetto 59