W ciemnosci

It's WWII in German-occupied Polish city Lwów. Leopold Socha is a sewer worker and an opportunist looking to enrich himself with Jewish gold. At first, he and his co-worker friend Szczepek Wróblewski help the Jews but only for a price. However, the danger of discovery mounts. Some people get suspicious. Leopold finds himself alone hiding his group even after they run out of money.

The obvious holocaust movie comparison is the great 'Schindler's List'. Of course, there is similarity between Schindler and Socha. However the characters in this movie seem move gritty. It's more than the grungy sewer location. It is the people's pettiness and ugly racism. It's not just the Germans, or the Ukranians or the Poles. It's also the Jews. For most of the movie, the motives are not high-minded. Fear and the survival instincts hold sway. The eventual idealism comes not as a single revelation as Schindler riding his horse watching the ghetto be liquidated. It comes in a series of steps that moves forward and backwards. More than once, Socha almost abandons his Jews and almost as many times, Socha is about to be killed by his Jews. This is more gritty and compelling in a different way. Socha is a hero almost by chance but it is his humanity overcoming his fears that is the true story. He is no mover and shaker. He is a blue collar grunt and he risks the little that he had for the sake of strangers. Filming in the narrow confines of the sewer set does limit the visual scale. It doesn't always provide the best views.

I watched this movie a few days back and I'm still contemplating what I saw. It took me a while until I decided to watch it. I thought I saw enough movies about The Second World War and about The Holocaust in particular. But after watching it I was almost ashamed that I could think like this. It's not like I'm ignorant, I just think that movies about war are always too simple – so I prefer to read books rather than watch movies. But this movie is different. I was touched very deeply and I don't regret any second spent on watching it.

The script is focused around the characters and maybe that is the strongest part of it. The war is only the background. We see how people can change and how they act when the tension around is almost unbearable. We see the brightest and the darkest side of humanity. And maybe what is most important here, we see common people. Without guns, without any special abilities – true, honest characters with all their doubts, needs and desires. Only the circumstances are not common, so our characters try to deal with them. The word "our" characters is not an accident. I felt very close to these characters – bad or good, it didn't matter – they were almost naked in their emotions. And I think it's very true: in the horror of the war you don't have the time or the strength to hide behind some kind of curtain. No matter to what God we pray, what language we speak, in the end we are all human – and it's our choice, what we make of our humanity.

Preferably watch it in the movie theater. Only then it is possible to experience the grand play of lights and the perfect work of the camera. In this movie also this aspect has its strong impact on the viewer.

I would say while watching this movie, I felt like I was in the very same place as our characters. It's very rare for me to have such feelings, so for me it's the best proof that this movie is in some way exceptional. I thought how I would act in situations the characters are in and I'm glad that I haven't been and I hope I never will be.

And I keep thinking that I'm very thankful for the creators, producers and the whole crew for this movie!

The subject matter of some films is so serious that it makes it difficult to assess the work in purely cinematic terms. This is especially true of real-life events that raise moral issues and there can be no bigger instance than that of the Holocaust which is every second of "In Darkness". It tells a story that would be literally incredible if it was not true: how a dissolute Polish sewer worker called Leopold Socha saved the lives of a dozen Jews by hiding them underground for months. This happened in what was during the Second World War the Polish town of Lwów and today is the Ukrainian town of Lviv. In 1978, Socha and his wife were awarded the title "Righteous among the Nations" by Yad Vashem in Israel.

The film is the work of Polish female director Agnieszka Holland and it is a Polish, German and Canadian co-production with a screenplay by Canadian writer David F. Shamoon. In any country, the film will have some subtitles, because the dialogue involves Polish, Ukrainian, Yiddish and German, and of course in English-speaking nations the whole thing is sub-titled which will limit its appeal to many, but it really is a work worth watching. Holland effectively conveys the paralysing fear and utter squalor of life in the sewers and Robert Wieckiewicz as Socha - like the other actors - shows how the unbearable stresses of such situations make people behave in ways, both good and bad, which are out of character.

"In Darkness" does not have the narrative drive and clear characterisation of "Schindler's List" but, like Spielberg's film, it is powerful movie-making and heart-wrenching storytelling.

The film tells the story of Leopold Socha, who helped Jews during the Nazi occupation of Lvov, a city in Poland. Socha is a sewer worker and one day he encounters a group of Jews trying to escape through the underground. He decides to hide them in exchange for money. It's a powerful story and center of attraction goes to Robert Wieckiewicz's character Socha. It's always hard to execute Holocaust movies and this film offers a new equation to the Holocaust films. It was Poland's entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign language film, but lost to 'A Separation'. Overall, it's a powerful film with most of the sequences shot in dark atmosphere and At the same time it's horrifying and intense too.

There have been a rash of holocaust films in recent years told from various view points and "In Darkness" is a worthy addition to the pantheon of films that re-tell the horror of the Jewish ghettos of Poland and their clearances. At a time when anti-semitic tendencies are once again beginning to emerge in various European countries it is sobering to be reminded of the consequences of the vicious hatred whipped up by the Nazis in the 30's and 40's.

While some might argue that the film is perhaps 20 minutes too long I was not aware of the time passing, being thoroughly engrossed in the attempts by a small group of Jews to survive long enough in the sewers to evade capture by either the Germans or the murderous Ukranian police force who did much to assist the Nazis in their elimination of the Jews in Poland. The scenes cut between the dankness of the sewers and the light of the streets above and whenever we are transported up from the dark and into the light, as an audience, we take gulps of fresh air.

I suspect there was some artistic licence employed but the story itself pins you to the seat and the collective sigh when the final message comes up on the screen at the very end is almost palpable.