In Darkness (2011)

Too much of everything

Absolutely Fantastic

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The film tells the story of Leopold Socha, who helped Jews during the Nazi occupation of Lvov, a city in Poland. Socha is a sewer worker and one day he encounters a group of Jews trying to escape through the underground. He decides to hide them in exchange for money. It's a powerful story and center of attraction goes to Robert Wieckiewicz's character Socha. It's always hard to execute Holocaust movies and this film offers a new equation to the Holocaust films. It was Poland's entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign language film, but lost to 'A Separation'. Overall, it's a powerful film with most of the sequences shot in dark atmosphere and At the same time it's horrifying and intense too.

Of course it is not a new "Schindler's List" as the protagonist is of a much smaller dedication in my opinion. This is not like "The Pianist", since the movie does not have the talent of Adrien Brody. I believe a lot of people including myself understand that it is not a GREAT movie. But still it's full of emotions, regrets, memories that many of us don't want to accept actually. I am absolutely convinced that the military drama must keep some traces (conclusions) in reasonable people's minds. If a trace wasn't left, then, the filming team did not cope with the task. No doubts this film did cope. So the conclusion is pretty simple: it is not a great but a GOOD military drama about Poland, Nazis, genocide, horror, dignity and of course love.I usually say about on-war movies that it is necessary to watch them, to remember and to be desperately willing (or to pray if you are a believer) to a similar never happens again. Never ever.7 of 10

It's an obvious understatement to say that World War Two brought out the worst in people; but in some cases, it brought out the best, men like Oscar Schindler who, though of no previous special moral character, risked their own lives rather than be complicit in murder. Agnieszka Holland's 'In Darkness' tells a less celebrated tale, of a Polish sewer engineer who hid a family of Jews underground for a year and saved them from certain death by risking his own life. The broad boundaries of the tale are familiar: mixed motives, bravery, squalor, and a backdrop of near unimaginable horror. How to make this watchable is the next challenge, and Holland doesn't wholly succeed: there's not quite enough that is particular to this story to offset the general misery (to my mind, Polanski's 'The Pianist' remains the single most riveting film of the Holocaust, for exactly the reason that the story it tells is so personal). Still, there are gripping moments, especially where the hero is nearly accidentally betrayed by his daughter. And it's a reminder that some of us have been blessed, so far at least, not to live in interesting times.

IN DARKNESS is a Polish, German and Canadian co-production. It is based on an actual incident that happened in Nazi-occupied Poland. So-called "holocaust" movies interest me, not as an indictment of any one people, but as a look into the "darkness" within mankind and the trigger that lets it come to the surface. The film delivers a knockout punch, focusing on a group of Jews who took to the sewers, enduring unspeakable indignities, while waiting for the war to end. I choose not to reveal any spoilers, but I feel I can say that the movie is a remarkable achievement, shot in dark and drab colors, that will keep you riveted, even as it is quite difficult to watch. It was nominated for Best Foreign Language film at the 2012 Oscars.