Triumph of the Spirit
Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Robert M. Young |
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| Produced by |
Shimon Arama Sonja Karon Arnold Kopelson Evan Kopelson Rony Yacov |
| Written by |
Andrzej Krakowski Laurence Heath |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Cliff Eidelman |
| Cinematography | Curtis Clark |
| Edited by |
Norman Buckley Arthur Coburn |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Triumph Releasing Corporation |
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Release date
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December 8, 1989 |
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Running time
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120 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Triumph of the Spirit is a 1989 American film directed by Robert M. Young and starring Willem Dafoe and Edward James Olmos. The screenplay was inspired by true events. The majority of the film is set in the death camp at Auschwitz during the Holocaust and details how the Jewish Greek boxer Salamo Arouch was forced to fight other internees to the death for the SS guards' entertainment. Prior to Triumph of the Spirit, no major feature film had ever been shot on location at Auschwitz.
A stevedore in Thessaloniki, Greece, Salamo Arouch's passion is boxing. Captured along with his family and fiance Allegra in 1943 and interned in Auschwitz, Arouch is used by his SS captors as entertainment, forced to box against fellow prisoners. He knows that if he refuses, his family will be punished; if he wins, he will be given extra rations which he can share with them; if he loses, he will be sent to the gas chamber. As his family and friends die around him, he has only his love of Allegra and his grim determination to keep him alive.
The film follows the early life story of Salamo Arouch, though it takes some artistic liberties including the early introduction of wife Allegra (a pseudonym for Marta Yechiel), whom Arouch did not actually meet until after the liberation of the camp.
Young was reluctant to make the film when he was first approached with the script, finding the topic too momentous to cover; he only agreed to direct when provided a script that focused only on one small element, "like a cork, bubbling on the surface of the sea." The film, which positions Arouch as a witness to the horrors of the Holocaust, was shot on a budget of US $12 million. Filming with permission at the Auschwitz concentration camp, producers were able to utilize some existing structures but were also tasked with recreating a crematory given the condition of those that remain. The film also shot briefly in Israel.
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Wikipedia