Lithuanian playwright Joshua Sobol’s “Ghetto” was an international success, not least because of its musical elements. These have been retained in the film version, for which Sobol himself adapted the script. Like the play, the film is based on events in Vilna during German occupation in 1942/43. 22-year-old Nazi officer Kittel, a man as cultured as he is cruel, is in charge of one of Europe’s biggest ghettos. When he discovers a group of Jewish actors, among them the famous singer Haya, he orders them to open a theatre. Kittel thoroughly enjoys their performances, even though some of the works they stage are critical and subversive. When he receives orders to “eradicate” the ghetto as German troops retreat from Lithuania in 1943, Haya and the Jewish police commander Gens appeal to Kittel’s conscience. But the unscrupulous Kittel is thinking only of his rehabilitation after the war. Filmed in the original locations, “Ghetto” is part of the national Lithuanian Holocaust memorial programme.