The war has come to Poland, and Warsaw Zoo owners Jan and
Antonina Zabinski have been done a terrible wrong – but not as bad as what they
see happening in the Warsaw Ghetto. Clever and tender – Antonina almost
preternaturally so, Jan with a taste of toughness – the Zabinskis find a way to
save hundreds of their persecuted Jewish neighbors, using their zoo-turned-pig-farm as a hideout.
The film looks marvelous, and Antonina Zabinski is the sort of woman Jessica Chastain excels at playing: tender, with
a sense of strength smoldering underneath. The tenderness abounds, while the
strength is much subtler. It erupts in delicious moments, the most interesting
of which is her handling of a sexual predator.
Overall a tender film whose power rests in Antonina’s gentleness, its compassionate treatment of victims of sexual violence, and its wise,
less-is-more approach. Director Niki Caro uses our collective memory to tell
the Zabinsksis’ story almost after the manner of Eisenstein. When buildings burn and ash falls like snow, we remember the crematoria to come. The slaughter of zoo
animals reminds us that these are not the only innocents who will be killed. When Jan smuggles Jews
out of the ghetto and we see Nazi harassment begin in the corner of the frame,
we are anxiously aware that it will continue long after Jan – and us with him –
has left.
This is not a perfect movie. Who are Jan and Antonina,
besides tender and brave? What becomes of Daniel Brühl’s arresting villain? Who
are the brave men and women curled up quietly in the tunnels beneath the zoo,
coming out after midnight and living in fear? The film never tells us. But at
least it makes us care enough to ask.
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