By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Starring: Agnieszka Grochowska | Benno Fürmann | Herbert Knaup | Maria Schrader | Robert Wieckiewicz
Country: canada, germany, poland
Year: 2012
Running time: 145
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1417075/
Bruce says: “Agnieszka Holland’s most acclaimed film – EUROPA, EUROPA – featured a young Jewish man who posed as a Hitler Youth to avoid his inevitable annihilation. With IN DARKNESS she returns to the holocaust once again. Nominated for a Foreign Language Oscar in 2012, IN DARKNESS has garnered much attention. Based on In the Sewers of Lvov: A Heroic Story of Survival from the Holocaust the film chronicles the true story of Leopold Socha, who saved a dozen Jews by helping them as they hid in the sewers. While many Jews were in denial or paralyzed by fear, one Jew named Mundek (Benno Fürmann) has the foresight to drill into the town sewer tunnel through his apartment floor. When the round up began Mundek and the others
disappeared underground.
“When Socha (Robert Wieckiewicz), the town sewer maintenance man, discovers them hiding in the sewers he extorts money, then jewels, to guarantee them protection and find food. All is done at great risk since most townspeople are suspicious of any deviation from the norm and seemingly willing to report questionable activity such as a sudden increase in size and number of orders for the butcher. Socha has plenty of street smarts and he navigates his perils remarkably well.
“Initially Socha is nothing more than an opportunistic anti-Semite. He has no feelings other than antipathy for the Jews. But he does like their money. He keeps all his dealings to himself not even sharing them with his wife (Kinga Preis). He is appalled at what the Jews will do to survive. Eventually his greed turns to altruism and his antipathy, to admiration. It is quite an evolution. Robert Wieckiewicz is perfectly cast in a role that seems to have been waiting for him.
“As compelling and deeply moving as this story can be, it is very difficult to create much visual satisfaction for the viewer when most of the activity takes place in dimly lit sewers. The lighting becomes an affectation of sorts. More often than not it seems staged. Often, the actors’ expressions are hidden; frequently their identity is difficult to discern. From one scene to another – sameness. Knowing what I now know, given a choice I would be sorely tempted to read the book and pass on the movie. 3.5 cats”