It is 1945 and the Nazi regime has murdered six million Poles since its initial occupation six years prior. The strong winter sun brightly illuminates the devastated landscape of Lvov, Poland, while beneath the daylight, nine terrified Jews hide in darkness. Kristine Keren is 7 years old, living out the story which would later become the tragic and true feature film “In Darkness.”
Keren was among a group of Jews attempting to flee the liquidation of the ghetto Lvov and escape internment at the Janowska concentration camp.
By a turn of fate, a small-time thief named Leopold Socha (Robert Wieckiewicz) saw an opportunity to make a profit off these fear-stricken Jews. For a weekly fee, he hid them in the labyrinthine sewage system of Lvov bringing them weekly food.
For over a year, Keren, her brother, her parents and a group of fellow Jews hid underneath the feet of those who hunted them, swallowed by the darkness.
Keren chronicled her 14 months in a novel called “The Girl in the Green Sweater.” Named Krystyna Chiger (Milla Bankowicz) as a child, the novel inspired Canadian screenwriter David Shamoon to rewrite Keren’s story with nearly unaltered authenticity and present his script to acclaimed Polish director Agnieszka Holland (“Europa, Europa”).
Holland brought the story to the screen along with its pain, profound sadness and raw, unabashed humanness. Holland’s brave ability to tackle the truth about human condition is what makes “In Darkness” a unique depiction of the Holocaust.
The characters are not portrayed as shells of people with their souls removed by the tragedy they have experienced, as so many Holocaust movies seem to do. Nor does Holland pretend the characters held on to a belief in God or a loved one or a determination to live. Holland is unafraid to show humans as they are when everything else is stripped away: still human.
The group of escapees still have sexual desires, a capacity for love or are moved by a child’s song. They are also capable of killing and vulnerable to the comfort of blaming others and blind rage.
This film is about the beauty and ugliness of the human condition more than it is about anything else.
The character development of Socha, the man helping hide the Jews, is intensely emotional as he struggles to decide what is right and what is wrong.
Despite the dark topic, watching the transformation that takes place within Socha is heartwarming. He begins as a man who has decided to take advantage of a helpless group of Jews fleeing the concentration camps. He ultimately grows compassionate towards the Jews’ plight and even offers to take in one of their children as his own.
The film is worthy of the impressive critical acclaim it has received and has already been nominated for a Golden Globe in the Foreign Language Film category.
The cinematic elements of this movie are superb. Cinematographer Jolanta Dylewska won the Golden Frog award at the Plus Camerimage, Europe’s largest cinematography-focused film festival, for her work on “In Darkness.”
Dylewska’s most remarkable work on the film is the lighting. The darkness is suffocating and disorienting, causing an acute sense of claustrophobia. With barely any light, the audience must strain to make out how the story unfolds, breaching the fourth wall and sharing with the audience the fear of the unknown that enveloped the characters’ lives.
“In Darkness” takes a certain individual to appreciate it, but that’s how it is for any Holocaust movie. But the cinematography was superb, and the way the story unfolded was raw and beautifully grotesque. Despite language barriers and unfamiliarity, the torment within the film was palpable to any viewer. Every aspect of this film came together to strike the most human chord.
thescene@theeagleonline.com
