Movie Review: In Darkness


I read a short plot review of this movie in the New York Magazine earlier this year and was determined to go and see it... Of course, that never happened, a common occurrence in my life, so I ended up buying it on DVD and watching it the other night. Directed by Agnieszka Holland (Europa, Europa) and Katarzyna Adamik, In Darkness is an adaptation of a true story. During World War 2, in the city of Lvov (Polish at the time, Ukrainian today), Polish plumber and petty thief Leopold Socha, works in the underground sewer tunnels and knows them off by heart. When he discovers a group of Jews who are trapped in the ghetto and who intend to hide in the tunnels from the Nazis and their Ukrainian helpers, he makes a deal with them - with their money they can buy his help and silence. During the liquidation of the ghetto Socha hides the Jews in an isolated area of the tunnels and brings them food and water. What starts off to be a mere business transaction between Socha and the Jews becomes a story of survival and tolerance amidst a world of violence, death and oppression.

The dialogue is mainly in Polish, with some German, Ukrainian, Yiddish and Russian thrown in here and there, and this is definitely not a movie of euphemisms. Holland doesn't hold back when portraying the absolute horrors of the war, and honesty is one of the main themes running through the storyline. Once the money runs out, Socha is incapable of letting "his" Jews die alone in the sewers and makes their survival his personal mission, even when faced with the dangers of being caught and executed. I found it a little difficult in the beginning to differentiate all of the characters in the tunnels, but it becomes easier after the groups are separated and the plot focuses on a smaller group of strongly played survivors. My favourites were definitely Socha, Mundek and Klara, who constantly have to battle their own fears and emotions in order to remain strong for the others.

Definitely one to watch if you are into movies about human nature at its best and worst; not if you can't deal with watching violent death scenes.

More information:
Agnieszka Holland on Wikipedia


Companies apologising for their Nazi past & blatant hypocrisy

So now Hugo Boss are apologising for their Nazi past because a book is being published about it? See BBC News article HERE.
This is the second article I have read about fashion and Nazism this year (I am sure there were more, I just haven't read them). The first one was a few months ago, in regards to the book that was released "revealing" Coco Chanel's flirtation with Nazism (Sleeping With the Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret War by Hal Vaughan).
If I am not mistaken, Hugo Boss was tried and fined for his involvement after the war, and died not long after... I just don't really understand this need to apologise now, just because a new book is coming out. Sounds kind of like a hollow apology and highly hypocritical in my opinion.
In any case, this opens up a much larger debate. Any person who is slightly interested in this period of time and has a brain knows full well that there were many companies who collaborated with the Nazis. Some who were pressured to, and others who gladly ran to them with their business as soon as they came into power. Anti-semitism and totalitarianism were not born with Nazism, they just became somewhat tolerated as an existing regime. No one in power in countries outside of Nazi-occupied countries really knew or really cared about the extent of the atrocities committed during WW2 by the Nazis, until the war was over. And then, of course, no one had ever been a Nazi, a Nazi supporter, or had ever collaborated with the Nazis.
So, every time a book is going to come out about how a fashion designer/nuclear scientist/railway developer/foie gras provider used to collaborate with the Nazis, anyone associated with these people will feel the need to apologise?
Instead of a hypocritical apology, that is never going to wipe out whatever you or your ancestors may have done in the past, why not set up a fund or a charity that helps the victims of genocide and war today? Instead of just sweeping it under the carpet again, do something to help people suffering today.
Maybe Hugo Boss' war time victims appreciate the apology, and then that's good for them, but I think it's just another cop out. I don't think Coco Chanel ever apologised and her name and designs are still the most famous in the world. Goes to show how hypocritical this world really is, huh?