For the record, it's English. I was born in Tilbury, Essex, made temporarily 
American citizen?"
There’s a good chance that if you’re reading this review after Monday, February 27, In Darkness may well be celebrating winning an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. The competition is tough but if it does – or has – won, then it would have been deserved.
In Darkness is the true story of Leopold Socha, a petty thief who benefits financially from hiding a small group of Polish Jews in his city’s sewer system, sheltering them from the horrors of the Nazis above.
The actions of Socha are initially out of greed and profit – he’s not overly concerned with the plight of the fleeing Jews, but he is interested in making money – but as time passes he inevitably begins to see things in a different light.
In Darkness is not an easy watch; it pulls no punches. From the beginning we are immediately exposed to the sheer terror of the unexplainable actions of the Nazis. When Socha runs through the nearby woods, he witnesses the terrifying sight of a group of naked women of all ages shrieking in abject horror as they are chased by machine-gun wielding Nazi soldiers who eventually herd the women together and mow them down. It’s a shocking beginning.
At a running time of almost two and half hours, In Darkness ultimately feels as though we’ve all spent more time in the sewers than anyone would want. It also lives up to its title. Much of the film, for obvious reasons, is in subdued light, and while the overall feel may leave you with a sense of claustrophobia, that’s exactly what director Agnieska Holland is going for.
The cynic in some may call the film Schindler in the Sewers. Earlier when the film opened in other parts of the country I even recall a comment from Roger Ebert stating that In Darkness is yet another Holocaust film where Jews are saved by a gentile. It’s often bad form to comment on the views of other published critics, and while I have the greatest of respect for Roger Ebert, the comment seems unfair. For one thing, this is a true story, it’s a story worth telling, and frankly, even if the whole affair was a replica of Schindler – which it’s not – it’s a story that warrants telling over and over again. No matter how many films are made of the Holocaust we may never understand what drove these men in Nazi uniforms to behave in the way they did. We can debate and speculate as much as we want, but we will never fully comprehend the thinking behind such sustained atrocity on mankind.
In Darkness is harrowing, which is exactly what you should expect. It’s also a film you should see.
