Jan and Antonina Zabinski (Johan Heldenbergh and Jessica Chastain) run the popular Warsaw Zoo in 1939. Their idyll is shattered when the Nazis invade Poland, and their zoo is not spared the bombings. As Polish resistance fails and winter sets in, and many animals in the zoo dead from bombs or Nazi gunfire, the zoo becomes a pig farm for a Nazi zoologist, Lutz Heck (Daniel Bruhl). Under this cover, the Zabinskis begin to shepherd Jews from the ghetto to their zoo, and from there to whatever sanctuaries they are able to find. After five years of Nazi terror and violence, the approach of the Soviets causes Nazis to retreat and Warsaw is liberated. Though badly damaged, the zoo is eventually repaired and reopened. A postscript tells us that the Zabinskis saved some 300 people through their zoo.
It's not an original story. In fact, at times it feels more like a Hallmark special than a theatrical feature. The movie progresses with a sentimental eye for quiet moments of gentle affection, blurring the edges of shots and suffusing scenery with warm light reminiscent of Touched by an Angel. In terms of the plot, it's a little problematic that the Jews and the animals are viewed in much the same way, not just in where they are physically, but in the Zabinskis' (and our) emotional attachment to them. Many are nameless, though a few become familiar; that statement applies to both parties.
Contrasted with the likes of, say, Schindler's List -- which is, I think, what we automatically think of -- The Zookeeper's Wife falls woefully short of the genre. But its faults are mostly similar to those of the novel on which it is based, and as an adaptation of that work it is magnificent. It heightens the sexual tension between Antonina and the rival zoologist, a tension that, if it existed at all, was very subtle in the novel. It brings the beauty and warmth of zoo life to vivid reality, and plays your heartstrings with reckless abandon during the Nazi advance. Other moments work especially well too, such as Jan rescuing Jewish children under watchful Nazi guards' eyes and the burning of the ghetto during Passover. Those images will haunt as much as Spielberg's little girl in the red coat.
I'm not sure, though, that the film asks for this comparison. It's not titled The Warsaw Zoo, which we might expect to giver broader scope and greater detail to the horrors Nazis inflicted on Polish Jews and the ways the zoo saved people. The film is about a woman afraid for the lives of her family, her home, and her beloved animals. In fact, she doesn't even particularly want to help the Jews at first; when her husband rescues one, however, she proves indispensable, and her caring and gentle demeanor provides as much shelter for the hideaways as her home.
I'd go so far as to say this film is both timely and important in significant ways. It's one of the first films I know about World War II to give this much attention and agency to a female character, and Chastain's understated performance is a perfect parallel to the film's quiet strength and laserlike insight into the human heart. The film celebrates emotions and concepts almost never seen in movies about this era: sacrifice, patience, kindness, charity, empathy, integrity, and hope. It pairs these intangibles with children, animals, and women in revolutionary (if predictably sentimental) ways. Most of all, the film is a small, still prayer for peace, kindness, and gentleness in an age of wall-building and deportations, neo-Nazis taking to the streets, and, yes, efforts to roll back restrictions on the hunting of African elephants. As the face of America has changed drastically over the course of this year, The Zookeeper's Wife looks more and more prescient. We would do well to remember.
IMDb: The Zookeeper's Wife
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