The film, which had its Polish premiere last weekend, tells the story of Tadeusz ‘Teddy’ Pietrzykowski, a prewar boxing champion of Warsaw, who in 1940 arrived with the first transport of prisoners at the newly created concentration camp of Auschwitz.
The camp officers force him to fight in the ring for his and other prisoners’ lives. During his three years in the camp, Pietrzykowski fought over 40 victorious duels.
The Guardian daily wrote in a review: “If you don’t already know about Pietrzykowski’s story, there’s genuine suspense in watching and hoping that this decent guy, played with tremendous physical prowess and quiet dignity by Piotr Głowacki, will make it through.”
The daily describes The Champion of Auschwitz as a “cleanly hewn drama, … a sturdy work, backed with a lovely full orchestral score.”
The film has won favourable reviews from Polish critics, one of whom wrote that it “shows Pietrzykowski as a symbol of hope for victory over Nazi terror and of the fight to preserve human dignity in a place whose goal was to deprive man of dignity.”
(mk/gs)