When Heck discovers her cunning, he tries to assault her Antonina and her son barely escape. To keep his attention away from the house and places in the zoo where Jews are in hiding for the long term or in transit, Antonina flirts with him over the course of many months, creating tension with Jan. Except for one animal, I couldn't tell which ones were computer generated they looked very real (and none were harmed in the making of the film).īrühl is convincing in his role as Heck, the treacherous and handsome Nazi. I am sure some won't care for her Polish accent and she doesn't overdo it. Toward the end, Antonina and her son have to flee the zoo (after Jan has been captured) when they return, they seem no worse for the wear.Ĭhastain as Antonina interacts very well with the animals, real or as CGI. It's similar to the film "Brooklyn," about an Irish immigrant to America: Her clothes were too clean, too pastel the film didn't externalize her inner struggles very well. The film runs cold at times because the look of it didn't convince me enough of the horror of those years. Shira Haas is amazing as the wounded girl who experiences Antonina's compassion during her years in hiding. Once Urszula is safe in the Zabinskis' basement, Antonina's gifts are truly revealed in patience and kindness. Jan helps her escape from the ghetto (where he comes and goes to retrieve garbage for the pigs - until the garbage gives out as the people are starved). For example, it runs hot when it tells the story of the young teen Urszula, who is taken by two Nazi soldiers and presumably raped.
However, there is an unevenness to the film. I haven't read the book yet but the film tells a good story as scripted by Angela Workman. Music played a significant part in the Zabinskis' life and their piano has a large role in keeping their human guests safe during the war.ĭiane Ackerman wrote the Zabinskis' story in The Zookeeper's Wife (2007) on which the film was based. She is the first of more than 300 Jews that the couple will hide almost in plain sight during the war by getting the Germans to agree for them to turn the zoo into a pig farm.Īll of them survived except for two, according to the postscript at the end. Jan and Antonina hide the wife in their basement while her husband goes into the ghetto to help his people. The Zabinskis have many friends, among them a Jewish couple. Their first task, headed by Heck, now a captain and the Reich's newly appointed chief zoologist, is to kill off almost all the remaining animals "because they will not survive the winter." Heck had hidden the fact from Antonina that he wanted the animals for genetic experimentation. The German soldiers move into the zoo and take over spaces that once housed animals.
Germany invades Poland months later and the bombings begin, traumatizing the family and animals. It is a sad day when the trucks arrive to take the best of the Warsaw Zoo's animals.
Heck makes it a point to declare his nonpolitical status. Lutz Heck (Daniel Brühl), who heads the Berlin Zoo, visits the Zabinskis and convinces Antonina to persuade Jan to send him their best animals for safekeeping during the inevitable war that is looming over Europe. It seems like an idyllic existence for the Jan and Antonina, who work together as partners to run the zoo. Nonthreatening animals roam the zoo freely and a couple of small cats even sleep in the house with the family. In fact, the film opens with her helping to deliver a baby elephant. She is what we would today call an animal whisperer for her skills with animals in distress. Jan is the head of the zoo but Antonina is not afraid to get her hands dirty. Antonina Zabinski (Jessica Chastain) and her husband, Jan (Johan Heldenbergh), live with their son, Ryszard (Tim Radford and Val Maloku), in a villa at the Warsaw Zoo. The film opens not long before Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. " The Zookeeper's Wife," the latest film from director Niki Caro ("Whale Rider"), is perhaps one of the most unknown historical dramas that took place during World War II and forms part of the canon of Holocaust films. Jessica Chastain as Antonina Zabinski in "The Zookeeper's Wife" (Focus Features)