Director: Andrzej Munk
1963
Years after the end of the war, Liza (Aleksandra Śląska) returns to Europe from America aboard the ship "Batory." When a new passenger boards in London, Liza is horrified to recognize in her Marta (Anna Ciepielewska)—a Polish prisoner from Auschwitz, where Liza herself had served as a ruthless overseer. The encounter unleashes a flood of memories: sometimes brutal and almost wordless, other times softened, in which Liza tries to justify her actions to herself and her husband. In her version, she saved Marta, secured her lighter work, and allowed her contact with her beloved. Yet the images from the past undermine these notions, revealing the harsh realities of everyday terror and the banality of camp evil.