Descent into Hell

The Ninth Circle (Jadran; Interprogress Trading) proves that Yugoslavia, notable among moviemakers chiefly as the place where Italian directors went to shoot horse pictures when their budgets ran low, has more to offer than well-disciplined extras. The film is a love story, set in Zagreb during the purge of the Jews in the early years of World War II. A Jewish family is arrested, except for a 17-year-old girl, Ruth (Dusica Zegarac). Loyal Christian friends hide her and, to give her legal status, arrange a marriage with their 19-year-old son Ivo (Boris Dvornik). It is not hard to guess what happens next, or what happens inevitably in the end. Ivo agrees to the marriage out of thoughtless humanity, hurts her cruelly, then begins to fall in love.

Awkwardness of plot rather than deficiency of emotion sometimes gives Director France Stiglic's superbly photographed film the itchy feel of melodrama. By happenstance, Ruth meets a trooper who recognizes her while she is walking in a park forbidden to Jews. After that she hides indoors, till one day, during an air raid, she can stand it no longer and runs out into the sunlit, deserted streets only to see a notice pasted to a wall: her father has been condemned to death. As the all-clear sounds, she is captured and packed into a cattle car.

Ivo follows Ruth and, improbably, is able to make his way into the death pen, where she is kept in a harem for the camp guards. He tries to smuggle her out. Reality obtrudes, and the film ends as they are climbing over the fence. It is a variant of the Orpheus legend, and it is not the fault of the lovers, who are acting in their first film and are touching and believable, that the retelling is not wholly a success. But it is too early for tender legends set in such a background. One does not see Orpheus and Eurydice; all one sees is hell.

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