The Agnieszka Holland film, In Darkness (2012), from Poland, relates the true story of a Polish sewer worker and the few Jews he hides from the Nazis in the city sewers. Coarse and initially unprincipled, the sewer worker later turns compassionate and solicitous. Of course the bulk of the film’s sympathy goes to the Jews, but they too are pronouncedly flawed. They can be selfish, disloyal and ungrateful. Meanwhile the Polish collaborators with the Germans—as well as the Germans themselves—are stunningly vile.
Familiar in certain ways, gratifyingly fresh in others, this perfectly made movie is a masterwork of period realism.
(In Polish, etc., with English subtitles)
Agnieszka Holland. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
