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.
