A screenshot from Agnieszka Holland's "In Darkness"
In Darkness is a Polish-German-Canadian co-production, and is based on the true story of Leopold Socha, a small-time crook who hides a group of Jews in the sewers of the Polish town of Lwow (now L’viv, Ukraine) during the Nazi occupation.
At first, all he wanted was to earn money but as time passed, he grew increasingly protective and eventually risked his own life to save the refugees.
Agnieszka Holland describes In Darkness as a film about “the dark and bright sides of man, showing how easy it is to cross the line from one to the other.”
The film is the director’s third feature referring to the Holocaust. “This theme continues to be a big artistic challenge as there are many questions that still remain unanswered. For me, if only for personal reasons, Polish-Jewish relations are particularly important,” she told the PAP news agency.
“Almost all members of my father’s family perished in the Warsaw Ghetto, whereas my mother, then a young girl, with her friends saved two escapees from the Ghetto, and was later given the Righteous among the Nations medal,” Agnieszka Holland continues.
The director’s latest film does not take sides, Holland maintains. “In Darkness is about ordinary people, who happen to be both nasty and heroic, sometimes at the same time,” she informs.
The film stars Robert Więckiewicz as Socha, Agnieszka Grochowska, Kinga Preis, Julia Kijowska, Marcin Bosak and the German actor Benno Fürmann.
A selection panel appointed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage chose Holland’s film as Poland’s candidate for an Oscar in an unanimous vote. The film is to go on general release in Poland in September.
Sony Pictures Classics has already acquired the rights for the film’s distribution in the United States.
Agnieszka Holland is a graduate of the Film Academy in Prague. She started her career in Poland in 1972 as an assistant to Krzysztof Zanussi. She settled in the West in 1981. Her credits include Total Eclipse, Washington Square, The Third Miracle, Europa, Europa, To Kill a Priest, The Secret Garden and Copying Beethoven. (mk/jb)