Diamonds of the Night [Criterion Collection]

Diamonds of the Night is set in Czechoslovakia during World War II. Ladislav Jansky and Antonin Kumbera play two Jewish youths who escape from a concentration camp-bound train. Captured by local peasants on a charge of stealing bread, the boys are sentenced to a firing squad. It turns out that the villagers have no real stomach for killing, and the boys merely go through the motions of a mock execution. They are let go, and continue their journey to freedom. Diamonds of the Night was originally …