Oddly, it’s the humanism of Antonina and Jan, whose heroic efforts helped save nearly 300 Jews, that fails to emerge with equal force. Caro brings astonishing power to a bombing raid on the zoo that panics the animals, many of whom are later shot by German soldiers in scenes of devastating terror.įlashback: Tina Turner Covers Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson on Debut Solo Album The serpent in this Eden slithers in with the Nazis. Antonia’s respect for animal life is boundless she even lets her young son sleep with lion cubs. Later, we watch her give CPR to a choking baby elephant with its mother ready to strike if anyone does her calf harm. In the early scenes, before the hostilities, Caro’s camera follows Antonia’s morning ritual of riding her bicycle around the lovely art-nouveau zoo, feeding the animals and talking to them like a female Dr. Though her Polish accent owes too much to Meryl Streep’s Eastern European lilt from Sophie’s Choice, Chastain is radiant as Antonina Zabinska, the wife of a zoopkeeper named Jan (Johan Heldenbergh). And in Jessica Chastain, Caro finds an actress ready to use everything she’s got to bring the title role to life. It’s fortunate that the stellar director Niki Caro ( Whale Rider) rarely lets the action go slack, using striking visuals that express so much more than the clunky verbiage. What a shame then, that in adapting the book by Diane Ackerman, screenwriter Angela Workman lets the dialogue run to the blandest of bromides. The Żabińskis were eventually recognized by Yad V’shem for their righteous acts, and defiance against the Nazis.It’s an incredible true story, how a Polish couple sheltered Jews during WWII in their abandoned zoo in Warsaw. It is also revealed that his efforts to recreate extinct animals failed.
Not long before the end of the war in Europe, Heck returned to Berlin, only to find his zoo destroyed by Allied bombings. The film reveals that only 6% of Warsaw’s population survived the war. The Żabińskis are then seen painting Stars of David on all the cages in the zoo. Jan then returns home and reunites with Antonina and his children. Antonina also begins rebuilding the Zoo, along with Urszula, Magda, Maurycy, and others. Antonina then sets one of Hecks test subjects free, a young bison, and has him run off into the woods.įour months after the Nazi surrender, Warsaw begins to be rebuilt. Antonina begs him not to kill Ryszard, and Heck relents, leaving the zoo for good. When Heck arrives with his men, he sees drawings on the walls of yellow stars, and in retaliation, attacks Ryszard, and holds him at gunpoint.
She is then able to escape, and warn her friends just in time for them to escape. Heck then attacks Antonina, and as he is about to rape her, finds out that she was indeed hiding Jews. However, Heck refuses, and reveals to Antonina that he once heard Ryszard say “Hitler ist kaputt”, and blames Antonina for resistance activity. Two years later, in January of 1945, with Soviet troops advancing, the Nazis begin evacuating Warsaw, and in a last attempt to find out where her husband is being held, Antonina visits Heck, to get his help.
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