It struck
me while watching this film that it’s a Hidden Figures type of movie, a true story about incredible people that many of us
have likely never heard of. I hope Hollywood
continues this trend of uncovering the remarkable in history and offering us
stories we haven’t seen before. Even
though there have been many films on the same topic as The Zookeeper’s Wife, the film tells its story with a specificity
that makes it feel both immediate and intimate (premise spoilers.)
Like so
many, Antonina Zabinsky and her husband Jan find their world torn apart by the
Nazis. Many of the animals in their
cherished, lovingly-cultivated zoo are killed in the blitzkrieg on Warsaw, and
what remain of the zoo’s structures are appropriated by the Germans to use as
an armory. As Antonina and Jan see
Jewish friends rounded up and sent to live in inhumane conditions in the
ghetto, they take it upon themselves to do whatever they can who help people
get out and get to safety. Under the
noses of their German invaders, they smuggle Jews out of the ghetto, give them refuge
on the grounds of the zoo, and help them escape the country.
This can
be an undeniably hard film to watch – I was ugly-crying in the theater when the
trains started rolling up for the ghetto’s so-called “evacuation” – but it’s
also an uplifting one about human indomitability amid untold horrors. I love seeing Antonina and Jan’s bravery,
compassion, determination, and sheer ingenuity in the aid they provide during
the war. Their plan is as
well-thought-out as it is wide-reaching, taking part in every facet of escape,
from inside the ghetto all the way to freedom, while maintaining a shrewd cover
story to conduct their work in plain sight.
The story comes to life in the details, like Antonina using her piano
playing as coded signals to warn hidden Jews of danger or let them know when it’s
safe to come out, or the Jewish children staying in the Zabinskys’ spare animal
cages in the cellar decorating the walls with Stars of David and drawings of
their experiences. Even though I know
there were so many brave people in Europe at this time saving lives, I appreciate
getting the chance to sink into this couple’s story and see what it was like
for them. The film does a superb job of
making you feel the immediacy of the story.
There are times when I think it’s easy to be so overwhelmed by the
atrocities of the Holocaust that you can lose sight of it, and seeing the
smaller story of one family’s experience can help contextualize it – remind you
of the people rather than the numbers.
I really
enjoy Jessica Chastain’s performance as Antonina. She’s a different sort of hero but one I love
seeing – soft-spoken and tremendously tenderhearted, but possessing an inner
strength that few would guess she has.
She actually reminds me quite a bit of Newt Scamander from Fantastic Beasts, and not just because
they’re both huge animal lovers. Rather,
it’s because both have a near-fathomless capacity for empathy, and both are at
their fiercest in defense of others. I’m
not familiar with John Heldenbergh, who plays Jan, but he’s also very good
(watching his trips into the ghetto is harrowing) and makes an excellent screen
partner for Chastain. Daniel Brühl is in
the film as well, turning in his usual strong work in the complex role of a
professional acquaintance of the Zabinskys who rises to prominence in the
German army during the war.
Warnings
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