IN MEMORIAM - AND "IN DARKNESS"

Yes, I know. Yet another Holocaust film. Now, I’m not dissing the Holocaust or anything commemorating it; but it is true that there are, well, rather a lot of films of the same genre floating around. It is normal considering the great and continuing trauma the horrific event caused in the collective memory of the world, but the profusion of material of the same ilk means that we become “desensitized” if you like to a certain breed of film. This is why I find director Agnieszka Holland particularly successful in this film. Firstly, she has taken an event that has been gone over with a fine-toothed comb and found an amazing true story that is unlike all the rest of the equally unbelievable WW2 stories, and secondly she has been made a film that, despite all the desensitization on the topic, touches one, to the core of one’s soul. In Darkness takes place in that Jewish Ghettos formed by the occupying Nazis in WW2 Lvov. Leopold Socha is a sanitation inspector – which basically means he works in sewers. He doesn’t like the Nazis particularly but is not really moved by the plight of the Jews enough to actually do something in the vein of resistance until runs into a group of escapee Jews in of all places, the sewers. The group comes from the ghettos and they have made a tunnel in an attempt to escape the oppression they live under. This tunnel comes in very handy when the Russian army starts advancing and the Nazis start ransacking the ghettos. A large group of men, women and children escape into the sewers and Leopold agrees to guide them to safety and procure supplies – all for a daily fee of course. Both his wife and his colleague tell him what he is doing is wrong and / or dangerous. But Leopold continues, first purely for economic reasons and then, when the money runs out, out of the goodness of his heart – for he is a kind man for all his bluster. The problem is, the war is evidently coming to an end and desperation is growing in the German camp. Will the little group living In Darkness make it to the end of the war? First of all, let me say this. If you actually make it to the end of this film without crying once, I’m pretty sure you’re made of stone. The darkness of the sewers and the direness of the group’s living conditions, forced to live like rats under the city streets is enough to upset one. But then there is the sheer “reality” of the film and the characters. In this kind of film one finds, to various degrees that the goodies are “saintly” while the baddies are “evil”. Not so here. Leopold is gruff, uneducated and has many faulty. I was quite annoyed by him at the beginning. But as time goes by, it is not so much that he changes that much, but we get to know him. In the same way, the Polish officer – Leopold’s friend – who actually collaborates with the Nazis, is evidently not a bad sort at heart. Leopold’s wife and young colleague / apprentice react very badly at Leopold’s plans at first but they are obviously not really bad people either. The Jews are also very real, with their flaws and their virtues. Thus we are able to thoroughly emphasize with the characters, all the characters, and that simply means an emotional rollercoaster from beginning to end. Basically, you are invested in the film from the word go, it’s a real challenge not to be touched by it. I think this is a good thing. After WW2, the world said “never again”, and yet the atrocities keep on coming thick and fast. Getting some emotions involved may be, in the long run, the only way of stopping them…