Many, many films and books have been written on topics concerning WWII. With some reflection on this I think it is because there has been nothing quite like it in the history of man. The destruction and death is something unprecedented in the world; the number of casualties and the atrocities committed are beyond the scope of imagination or human comprehension. As Joseph Stalin once reportedly said, "The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic." It was simply too horrific, and yet we continue to try and find some way of making sense of a senseless era of travesty. It is endlessly fascinating and always we are learning of new stories of heroism or stories of the wonders of the human will for life.
"In Darkness" is a Polish film telling one of the most amazing and upsetting of these true stories about a group of Jews being protected in the sewers of Poland by a sewer inspector who had much to lose by keeping them hidden. For 14 months this group of twelve lived in darkness and human waste whilst the Germans and Hungarians killed or imprisoned Jews literally right above their heads. Their struggle was animal-like--it was inhuman, and yet their story lived on past the end of the war.
Leopold Socha was the man responsible for their rescue. A Pole, but not a Jew himself, this part-time thief comes across a group of men who have dug a hole into the sewers to create an emergency escape route in case of invasion. Seizing the opportunity to make a few easy zloty he agrees not to turn them in in exchange that they pay him an outrageous weekly sum to keep them and their family safe during occupation.
When the Germans arrive he keeps his word bringing dozens of men, women and children into a secluded enclave. When suspicions arise about the possibility of Jews under the streets of Lvov authorities turn to Socha for help, understanding he knows the sewers better than anyone else. Through endless cunning in some very tight spots he is able to smuggle a dozen of them into an even safer region, and there he keeps them for months on end.
Through hunger, disease, birth and death he hides them, which almost costs him his family and his life. At first it is his greed which drives him to do such things, but eventually he begins to see this as his mission for the war. An ongoing joke (if one could call it that) is that people in Poland have no idea that Jesus was a Jew. Eventually the money stops, but he carries on out of a sense of duty, or perhaps it is love. In any case it is baffling and life-affirming. There is ultimate good in Socha. One man helps Socha's friend into a concentration camp to find a young woman, and when he won't accept payment the man simply says, "God will reward me." I think this had a very pivotal impact on him.
The film is a true testament to the human spirit. One miserable event adds to another, but still these simple folk carry on determined to protect themselves and their family and friends. I left the cinema utterly depressed with my own issues in perspective, but simultaneously I had the strange feeling that they couldn't have been completely unhappy. They were there for so long, but the fact that they were strong with faith in their beliefs, each other, and most importantly Socha affirmed my deeply held beliefs that humans will find a way to carry on and make the most of the worst situations. People may say they would rather die, but perhaps the smallest pleasure in the worst conditions is still life enough.
This is a very well made film. Dialogue, acting, and cinematography were all superb. The claustrophobia and the horridness of the sewers was pervasive; it seemed to ooze right out of the screen. I would like to point out that in most every film I have seen about wartime Poland it is always shot in grays and tobaccos. Now I have never been to Poland, but I'm guessing this is something of a cliche. No matter though, it was shot beautifully and added to the desolate mood of the film. There was a distinct tinge of "Schindler's List" in both the filming as well as the content which no doubt influenced its development.
SPOILER: The memoirs of one of the little girls was the text used for the creation of the movie. I have no doubt that some of the material was affected by time, the girl's age, and the actual content of the events, but it is still otherworldly the amount of detail presented. I enjoyed this, through all of its abject misery, and it reaffirmed my love of history and what it can tell us about human psychology.
3/4
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