IN DARKNESS (Canada/Germany/Poland 2011) ***
Directed by Agnieszka Holland

Agnieszka Holland’s (EUROPA, EUROPA, THE SECRET GARDEN, WASHINGTON SQUARE) latest film takes a moralistic look at a Polish Catholic working the sewers in Lvov, Poland during WWII. 

The film is a suspenseful drama based on the true story outlined in Robert Marshall’s book IN THE SEWERS OF LVOV.  The setting is Nazi-occupied
Lvov, Poland, 1943 where the weak prey upon the weak and the poor steal from the
poorer.

Jews often hid in the sewers to escape capture from the Germans.  Leopold Socha (Robert Wieckiewicz) works the sewers and aids the Jews hiding there when he comes accidentally comes across a group of them during his rounds.  If not, he is robbing the rich homes of the Jews now occupied by the Germans.  His morals are questionable, but his wife is the one that puts him in his place.  But he learns what is right soon enough when he sympathizes with the plight of the Jews. 

Director Holland has created a claustrophobic atmosphere so authentic that the audience could even imagine the stench of the rubbish and rodents running around the filthy waters.  The lighting is impressive and the night or ‘lightless’ cinematography close to perfect.  The only problem is that Holland trivializes the film a few times for example in the segments where Socha is piggy-backing the Jewish kids or finding lost children or over dramatizing as in the child birth segment in which the mother is not allowed to scream as they are all hiding underneath a church where the sounds travel easily through.  Still, all this is powerful stuff especially watching Socha transform from unsympathizing Catholic to dauntless hero.

IN DARKNESS is nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film this year.  It is Agnieszka Holland’s third film nominated for this category.  Third time lucky?