The zoo director's wife

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Movie
German title The zoo director's wife
Original title The Zookeeper's Wife
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2017
length 127 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Niki Caro
script Angela Workman
production Jeff Abberley
music Harry Gregson-Williams
camera Andrij Parekh
cut David Coulson
occupation

The Zoo Director's Wife is an American drama from 2017. The film by the New Zealand director Niki Caro is based on the book of the same name by the author Diane Ackerman , who used a diary of the then Warsaw zoo director Jan Żabiński and his wife Antonina , who together saved nearly 300 Jews from the Holocaust during the German occupation .

action

Jan Żabiński and his wife Antonina run the Warsaw Zoo , one of the largest zoos in Europe. The couple lovingly take care of the animals. But during the German invasion of Poland , with which the Second World War began on September 1, 1939 , the zoo was also hit by bombs from the Wehrmacht air force. The facilities are destroyed and wild animals roam free.

Jan is worried about Antonina and their little son Ryszard, but they cannot leave town. Dr. Lutz Heck , the director of the Berlin zoo and Hitler's chief zoologist, informs Antonina that the zoo will be liquidated. At first he offers her to take over the best animals, but on his next visit in winter he shoots some animals.

In October 1940, the city's Jews were taken to the Warsaw Ghetto . The Żabińskis talk to their Jewish friends Maurycy Fraenkel and Magda Gross about Szymon Tenenbaum's insect collection, which they hide in the cellar. But Antonina has another idea: She also wants to offer Magda a hiding place in the house.

Jan is skeptical at first about the danger, but after Magda comes to them, he even reveals a bigger plan. He supports the Home Army , which provides temporary shelter to Jews before they are taken to safe houses in other parts of the country. Antonina describes the plan as a “human zoo”, but goes along with it. The couple goes to Heck and suggests opening a pig farm in the zoo to feed the soldiers. The feed for the animals should come from the ghetto. Heck also dreams of the resuscitation of the extinct aurochs . After the pigs and bison have been delivered to the zoo, Antonina says that she wants to use Heck's personal interest in her to control him.

Jan drives to the ghetto to collect kitchen rubbish. But he hides Jews in his truck to take them to the zoo. He also takes the girl Urszula with him, who is traumatized after being raped by the Nazis . Antonina slowly finds an approach to Urszula by telling about her own childhood and giving the child a rabbit. More and more Jews are coming to the Żabińskis. Antonina's piano music serves as a sign in the late evening that the Jews can come out of hiding, and as a warning during the day. It becomes particularly dangerous when there is rear in the house. The Żabińskis also try to set some of the Jews free by bleaching their hair so that they look Aryan .

Jan observes how Antonina and Heck get closer while mating with a bison. Then a Doctor Ziegler comes to them and tells them about Szymon's death. Ziegler is head of the employment office, the building of which is adjacent to the ghetto. He knows about the Żabińskis' commitment and offers them to use the passage to bring more Jews out of the ghetto. This is how Jan saves Maurycy.

The evacuation of the ghetto begins in August 1942. Jan cannot prevent many children and the educator Janusz Korczak from getting on a train going to the concentration camp . Back at the zoo, the couple argue. Jan blames Antonina for her relationship with Heck. When she speaks of fear, he indicates that many people die nearby. But Antonina thinks that the couple is at the mercy of the Nazis.

In April 1943, Roza Anzelowna and her mother, two women rescued by the Żabińskis with light hair, were discovered in their new hiding place and shot by the Nazis. On the evening of April 19, the eve of Hitler's birthday, the people in the zoo learned of the impending destruction of the ghetto in connection with the uprising there . While the Nazis burn down the ghetto, the Jews in hiding celebrate a seder at the beginning of Passover . Heck later observes an argument between Jan and Ryszard. He confronts the boy who claims his father is in Zalesie . After Heck has left the house, however, he hears Ryszard shouting "Hitler is broken", a saying he saw in the ghetto.

Later Antonina gives birth to the girl Teresa. Jan took part in the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944 . He is shot and taken prisoner.

In January 1945, as the German troops were preparing to withdraw, Antonina went to Heck to find out something about her husband's whereabouts. However, because of Ryszard's testimony, Ryszard suspects that the Żabińskis have something to hide and suggests that they are raping Antonina. Antonina rushes back to the zoo and can quickly get the hidden Jews into a truck that will take them away from the zoo before Heck arrives with other soldiers. In the cellar, Heck finds the drawings that the Jews painted on the walls. In a tunnel he chases Ryszard and he locks Antonina in a cage. He pretends to shoot the boy. Then he leaves the zoo for good. Antonina and her son join the march from Warsaw, releasing a young bison.

After the surrender of the Wehrmacht , the people of Warsaw work on rebuilding the city in September 1945 and Antonina returns with the children to the zoo, where she meets the loyal colleague Jerzyk. The rebuilding of the zoo is also beginning. The following spring, Jan also shows up. The Żabińskis paint stars of David all over the zoo . They saved 300 Jews and 20 years later they are recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations .

production

The film is set in Warsaw but was shot in Prague .

The premiere took place on March 7, 2017 in Warsaw. In the United States, the film was shown five days later at the Cinequest Film Festival and was released on March 31st. In Germany it was not seen in the cinema, but was released directly on DVD.

Teresa Żabiński stated that the connection between her mother Antonina and the Nazi zoologist Heck was exaggerated in the film. The wall drawings of the hidden Jews did not actually exist. Apart from these details, which, since it is not a documentary film, are to a certain extent justified, according to Żabiński's daughter the film is very accurate in its statement.

reception

Katja Iken tells the true story of the Żabińskis in an article on Spiegel Online on the occasion of the film and sees the author Ackerman and the director Caro as "the merit of having published an almost forgotten story [which] testifies to extraordinary chutzpah". Oliver Armknecht writes in his review at film-rezensions.de that the film is "too good and fearful with the main character and the plot to develop the emotional force it deserves". Stephen Holden is even more critical in his review of the New York Times . He regards the film as a "Disney version of the Holocaust" and criticizes the lack of drama: "Not without moments of terror and despair, the leisurely timing of the script undermines its dramatic effect."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for the zoo director's wife . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ IMDB Trivia
  3. ↑ IMDB Trivia
  4. ↑ IMDB Release Info
  5. ↑ a b Oliver Armknecht: The wife of the zoo director. film-rezensions.de, September 22, 2017, accessed April 15, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Otmar Lahodynsky: Moral courage in the zoo: Film The "wife of the zoo director". profil.at, October 19, 2017, accessed on April 15, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Katja Iken: The hiding place in the zoo. Spiegel Online, September 13, 2017, accessed April 15, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Stephen Holden: Review: In 'The Zookeeper's Wife,' the Holocaust Seems Tame. The New York Times, March 29, 2017, accessed April 15, 2018 .