Film Review: ‘In Darkness’ Illuminates Another Horror of the Holocaust

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly versionE-mail page to friendE-mail page to friendPDF versionPDF version
No votes yet

CHICAGO – The subject of the Holocaust has become an entire film genre onto it’s own, embracing many different styles. The latest Holocaust film, “In Darkness,” feels like a disaster movie, and iconic Polish director Agnieszka Holland has steered it to a Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 3.5/5.0
Rating: 3.5/5.0

Based on a true story, it begins with the self-serving nature of human beings and evolves into their better angels. In the harboring of Polish Jews within a wretched sewer system, it also becomes emblematic of the whole evil of the Holocaust, the banishment of living human beings into the darkness of a hole in the earth, constituting a form of hell. Although many tales of these events have made into narrative films, to think about the reality of what actually happened is almost too much to fathom. This realization of hell is another bitter reminder of what humanity has had to consume.

Leopold Socha (Robert Wiecklewicz) is a sewer worker and petty thief in 1943. He is trying to survive with his wife in Lvov, Poland, during the teeth of World War II. He has a friend named Bortnik (Michel Zuraski), who is a high ranking Nazi Ukrainian officer. Bortnik offers favors to Socha if he will find Jews hiding in the sewers of Lvov and turn them in. Emboldened by the idea, Socha actually comes across a group of Jews within the dank confines of the world below. But the tables are turned, and the group offers Socha money to harbor them.

Seizing opportunity, Socha agrees to the arrangement. What begins as a mercenary mission, becomes something deeper as he observes the courage of sheer survival. As the boot of suspicion pushes down, Socha first considers abandoning his charges, but then gets even more involved when he helps one of the group, Margulies (Benno Fürmann), with a rescue attempt in a concentration camp. When the money runs out from the starving sewer dwellers and floods threaten them, Socha will understand the true light and meaning of what he is protecting.

“In Darkness” continues its limited release in Chicago on February 17th. See local listings for theater and show times. Featuring Robert Wiecklewicz, Benno Fürmann, Agnieszka Grochowska, Maria Schrader and Herbert Knaup. Adapted screenplay by David F. Sharmoon and directed by Agnieszka Holland. Rated “R”

StarContinue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “In Darkness”

The Light Above: Milla Bankowicz (Krystyna) and Robert Wieckiewicz (Leopold) for “In Darkness’
The Light Above: Milla Bankowicz (Krystyna) and Robert Wieckiewicz (Leopold) for “In Darkness’
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Classics

StarContinue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “In Darkness”

User Login

Free Giveaway Mailing

TV, DVD, BLU-RAY & THEATER REVIEWS

  • Manhunt

    CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 21st, 2024, reviewing the new streaming series “Manhunt” – based on the bestseller by James L. Swanson – currently streaming on Apple TV+.

  • Topdog/Underdog, Invictus Theatre

    CHICAGO – When two brothers confront the sins of each other and it expands into a psychology of an entire race, it’s at a stage play found in Chicago’s Invictus Theatre Company production of “Topdog/Underdog,” now at their new home at the Windy City Playhouse through March 31st, 2024. Click TD/UD for tickets/info.

Advertisement



HollywoodChicago.com on Twitter

archive

HollywoodChicago.com Top Ten Discussions
referendum
tracker