The Champion: Le combat de la liberté

Based on the true story of Tadeusz Pietrzykowski, a real-life Polish boxer who became famous for his nearly undefeated strings of victories in the Nazi concentration camps.

The film also stars Rafal Zawierucha, Marcin Czarnik and Marian Dziedziel. The music was composed by Bartosz Chajdecki. This is the first full-length movie directed by Barczewski.

The Polish title of the movie is Mistrz, "The Master".

The movie was released in English-speaking countries as The Champion of Auschwitz.

The film shows the grim life of Tadeusz Pietrzykowski(played Piotr Glowacki) in the concentration camp where he was held. By a lucky coincidence he is drafted in a boxing match due to his boxing ability and starts winning matches. From then onward his legend begins to grow...

This movie is not for the faint of heart. The prisoners in the film are depicted with brutal realism. All the atrocities done to them by the Gestapo are portrayed as accurately as possible.

I began to weep at some of the scenes, thanking my stars that I was not born in such an age of hatred of humankind.

Verdict: 10/10. A triumph in film-making. You should also see: Triumph of the Spirit 1989 based on the true story of Greek boxer Salamo Arouch and The Survivor 2021 based on the true story of boxer Harry Haft who survived the camps and went on to box the legendary undefeated boxer Rocky Marciano.

This is a tale of how a skill can make one's miserable enslaved existence more beneficial for the self and others. The skill saves some innocent and destroys some too; but no matter how hard the predicament might seem, there is always something to fight for. Dramatic near-death and comeback resurrection are truly inspiring.

Absorbing but harrowing film to watch , however it's important to see these real life hero stories brought to our attention

Piotr Glowacki is spellbinding in his lead role as Teddy.

There was a sincere effort here to make a good Holocaust film, hurt by ham acting on the part of the actors playing the Nazis and the even more ham-handed dubbing with dull Western voices instead of the real voices and languages of the actors and the characters they played. Dubbing is just stupid and also offensive. If westerners can't bother to read subtitles, then don't watch the movie. Those of us who enjoy International films and series want the languages and cultures of these works, and don't want the bizarre effects of dubbing coming from their mouths: "Once you overcome the 1-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films." -"Parasite" Director, Bong Joon-Ho whose film won the Academy Award-with sub-titles.

This movie is also known under the name "The Champion of Auschwitz". It shows Auschwitz camp life through the true experiences of a gifted boxer whom is prisoner of the camp. Because of a lack of entertainment for the guards and SS soldiers, camp officers decide to organize boxing matches, whereby this gifted boxer is made the main attraction.

What makes this movie special, is that it shows the beginnings of the Auschwitz "main camp", whereby prisoners were still living in brick buildings and Birkenau didn't exist yet. Having only 1 crematorium, it also still made use of burning pits.

This movie has pretty impressive scenes, which show the evil behavior of the Nazi guards and officers.

I score this movie with a 7.2, resulting in 7 IMDb stars.