Like 'Schindler's List', 'In Darkness' is told from the perspective of the survivors. And since there were so few survivors of the Holocaust, it's been said that such a perspective gives the wrong impression about what the Holocaust was all about. Are we to draw a message of hope when hope was extinguished in the vast majority of cases? In other words, the survivors were the exception to the rule. Still, it's through the perceptions of the survivors that we can gain an inkling of what the Holocaust was about.
Veteran director Agnieszka Holland wisely made the decision to film 'In Darkness' in the native languages of the characters. Hence, its verisimilitude feels superior to such English language films as Schindler's List. Most critics agree that Leopold Socha, the petty thief and sewer worker who saved the lives of 11 Jews, who spent over a year in the sewers of Lvov, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine), is a complicated, well scripted character. When we first meet him, he's completely surprised when his wife Wanda informs him that Jesus was Jewish. What's more, his comment, "Give a Jew a finger and he'll take your arm", is pretty typical of many of his fellow countrymen at the time. Socha may harbor some basic prejudices, but what motivates him is pure profit. Hence, he has no problem risking his own life, as long as there's the potential for significant financial remuneration.
Similarly, the Jewish characters are hardly depicted as saints either. Janek chooses his mistress Chaja over his wife and children when he enters the sewers. We meet Mundek, a hustler, who we see early on get punched in the face by a Polish man, who's angry for selling him a counterfeit watch. Klara is seen beating her younger sister, Mania, who wants to return to the ghetto with the full knowledge that the Germans are in the process of wiping out her neighbors on the streets above. More less than stellar behavior emerges including Janek having sex with his mistress while the other survivors can see and hear them in their beds, and Janek and a compatriot abandoning the group and leaving Chaja, who ends up concealing her pregnancy and then smothering her baby.
Some critics felt 'In Darkness' employed too many underdeveloped, 'stock' characters, where only Janek turns out be the true 'villain' amongst the sewer dwellers. Even Mundek, adopts the heroic mantle, when he leaves the sewers to search for Klara's missing sister. And the Chigers, with their two cute kids, prove to be closest to saintliness in the depiction of the Jewish victims here. Nonetheless, I would argue that the characterizations of Socha's 'Jews' are less important than the film's plot, which moves along like a suspense thriller, not only educating us about the mechanics of the Holocaust, but conveying the sheer terror which the survivors experienced.
The film's exposition neatly provides us with a series of iconic images that set the stage for more and more horrors to come. After Socha and his partner, Saczepek, burglarize the German officer's home and make their escape, they can't avoid catching a glimpse of a group of naked Jewish women being forced to run through the forest at the behest of German soldiers pointing machine guns at them; gunshots are heard and we see all the women lying dead in a field. Next cut to the ghetto, where German soldiers cut and tear off the beard of a religious Jew, who screams in pain. Even more importantly, we're introduced to Socha's ex-prison buddy, Bortnik, now a member of a Ukrainian militia, collaborating with the Nazis. The film makes the important point that in the Eastern European countries, often members of the local populace were directly responsible for doing the Germans' dirty work.
Perhaps the most disturbing scene is the liquidation of the ghetto. Holland brilliantly conveys the horror first from Socha and Saczepek's perspective. As they run through the sewers, we can hear the machine gun blasts and screams of terror from above. Only then does the camera shift upward (as if we've penetrated through to the street) and we're able to see what's going on above. Holland then focuses on Klara running to find her children--she only has time to catch glimpses behind her, as various people have already been killed or are in the process of being mowed down.
What will grip you about 'In Darkness' is how the stakes are continually raised from scene to scene: Socha's 'Sophie's Choice' decision to save only 11 people; Socha almost being mistaken for a Jew by Ukrainian militiamen and saved by Bortnik; Mania's disappearance; Bortnik informing Socha about the smell of onions in a toilet and then almost finding Socha's group; Socha finding the other group dead; Janek's breakdown; Mr. Chiger's revelation about the jewelry; Janek leaving the group; Mundek choking Socha; Mundek and Socha killing the German; Socha finding the children (which which leads to his transformation); Socha finding Sczepek hanged following the German's reprisals; the discovery by the Polish man of Socha's group and how he moves them to a new location; Mundek almost getting killed by the German officer and then sneaking into the work camp; Choja killing her baby; The flood and Socha's final confrontation with Bortnik, leading to the arrival of the Russians and the group's liberation.
Not everything works in the film. For example, how does Socha happen to be in the right place and the right time twice? (at the very moment Mundek is discovered by the German soldier and when he also overhears the Polish man screaming about how he's found Jews in the sewer).
The cast is quite strong, including Robert Wieckiewicz who's completely believable as the tough and bigoted sewer worker turned righteous Gentile. Being half-Catholic and half-Jewish, director Holland has sympathy for all the victims here but never sugarcoats reality. 'In Darkness' is a disturbing film which needs to be seen.
Veteran director Agnieszka Holland wisely made the decision to film 'In Darkness' in the native languages of the characters. Hence, its verisimilitude feels superior to such English language films as Schindler's List. Most critics agree that Leopold Socha, the petty thief and sewer worker who saved the lives of 11 Jews, who spent over a year in the sewers of Lvov, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine), is a complicated, well scripted character. When we first meet him, he's completely surprised when his wife Wanda informs him that Jesus was Jewish. What's more, his comment, "Give a Jew a finger and he'll take your arm", is pretty typical of many of his fellow countrymen at the time. Socha may harbor some basic prejudices, but what motivates him is pure profit. Hence, he has no problem risking his own life, as long as there's the potential for significant financial remuneration.
Similarly, the Jewish characters are hardly depicted as saints either. Janek chooses his mistress Chaja over his wife and children when he enters the sewers. We meet Mundek, a hustler, who we see early on get punched in the face by a Polish man, who's angry for selling him a counterfeit watch. Klara is seen beating her younger sister, Mania, who wants to return to the ghetto with the full knowledge that the Germans are in the process of wiping out her neighbors on the streets above. More less than stellar behavior emerges including Janek having sex with his mistress while the other survivors can see and hear them in their beds, and Janek and a compatriot abandoning the group and leaving Chaja, who ends up concealing her pregnancy and then smothering her baby.
Some critics felt 'In Darkness' employed too many underdeveloped, 'stock' characters, where only Janek turns out be the true 'villain' amongst the sewer dwellers. Even Mundek, adopts the heroic mantle, when he leaves the sewers to search for Klara's missing sister. And the Chigers, with their two cute kids, prove to be closest to saintliness in the depiction of the Jewish victims here. Nonetheless, I would argue that the characterizations of Socha's 'Jews' are less important than the film's plot, which moves along like a suspense thriller, not only educating us about the mechanics of the Holocaust, but conveying the sheer terror which the survivors experienced.
The film's exposition neatly provides us with a series of iconic images that set the stage for more and more horrors to come. After Socha and his partner, Saczepek, burglarize the German officer's home and make their escape, they can't avoid catching a glimpse of a group of naked Jewish women being forced to run through the forest at the behest of German soldiers pointing machine guns at them; gunshots are heard and we see all the women lying dead in a field. Next cut to the ghetto, where German soldiers cut and tear off the beard of a religious Jew, who screams in pain. Even more importantly, we're introduced to Socha's ex-prison buddy, Bortnik, now a member of a Ukrainian militia, collaborating with the Nazis. The film makes the important point that in the Eastern European countries, often members of the local populace were directly responsible for doing the Germans' dirty work.
Perhaps the most disturbing scene is the liquidation of the ghetto. Holland brilliantly conveys the horror first from Socha and Saczepek's perspective. As they run through the sewers, we can hear the machine gun blasts and screams of terror from above. Only then does the camera shift upward (as if we've penetrated through to the street) and we're able to see what's going on above. Holland then focuses on Klara running to find her children--she only has time to catch glimpses behind her, as various people have already been killed or are in the process of being mowed down.
What will grip you about 'In Darkness' is how the stakes are continually raised from scene to scene: Socha's 'Sophie's Choice' decision to save only 11 people; Socha almost being mistaken for a Jew by Ukrainian militiamen and saved by Bortnik; Mania's disappearance; Bortnik informing Socha about the smell of onions in a toilet and then almost finding Socha's group; Socha finding the other group dead; Janek's breakdown; Mr. Chiger's revelation about the jewelry; Janek leaving the group; Mundek choking Socha; Mundek and Socha killing the German; Socha finding the children (which which leads to his transformation); Socha finding Sczepek hanged following the German's reprisals; the discovery by the Polish man of Socha's group and how he moves them to a new location; Mundek almost getting killed by the German officer and then sneaking into the work camp; Choja killing her baby; The flood and Socha's final confrontation with Bortnik, leading to the arrival of the Russians and the group's liberation.
Not everything works in the film. For example, how does Socha happen to be in the right place and the right time twice? (at the very moment Mundek is discovered by the German soldier and when he also overhears the Polish man screaming about how he's found Jews in the sewer).
The cast is quite strong, including Robert Wieckiewicz who's completely believable as the tough and bigoted sewer worker turned righteous Gentile. Being half-Catholic and half-Jewish, director Holland has sympathy for all the victims here but never sugarcoats reality. 'In Darkness' is a disturbing film which needs to be seen.