The Zookeeper’s Wife is a 2017 war drama film directed by Niki Caro, written by Angela Workman and based on Diane Ackerman’s non-fiction book of the same name. The film tells the true story of how Jan and Antonina Żabiński rescued hundreds of Polish Jews from the Germans by hiding them in their Warsaw zoo during World War II.[Note 1] It stars Jessica Chastain, Johan Heldenbergh, Daniel Brühl and Michael McElhatton.
The film had its world premiere on March 8, 2017 in Warsaw, Poland, the location of the story, followed by its US premiere at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, California, on March 12, 2017. The film was released in the United States on March 31, 2017, by Focus Features, and by Universal Pictures International in the United Kingdom on April 21, 2017. It received mixed reviews from critics but a positive response from audiences and grossed $26 million worldwide.
Plot
Dr. Jan Żabiński (Johan Heldenbergh) is director of the Warsaw Zoo, one of the largest in 1930s Europe, assisted by his wife, Antonina (Jessica Chastain).
On September 1, 1939, the aerial bombardment of Warsaw and Invasion of Poland commences. Antonina and her son Ryszard (Timothy Radford and later, Val Maloku) barely survive. As Polish resistance collapses, Dr. Lutz Heck (Daniel Brühl), head of the Berlin Zoo and Adolf Hitler’s chief zoologist and Jan’s professional rival, visits the zoo while Jan is away. He offers to house the prized animals until after the war, later returning with Nazi soldiers to shoot the rest. He develops a romantic interest in Antonina.
The Jews of Warsaw are forced into the Ghetto. The Żabińskis’ Jewish friends, Maurycy Fraenkel (Iddo Goldberg) and his partner Magda Gross (Efrat Dor), seek a safe place for a friend’s insect collection. Antonina offers to shelter Magda. Knowing they can be executed for helping Jews, Jan and Antonina decide to use the zoo to save more lives.
They seek out Heck to propose turning the abandoned zoo into a pig farm to feed the German occupying forces, secretly hoping to bring food to the Ghetto. Heck, in need of a new site for his experiments in recreating aurochs as a symbol of the Reich,[Note 2] agrees.
Jan collects garbage from the Ghetto for the pigs and sees Jews starving. He begins working with the Underground Army to transport Jews to safehouses throughout the country. Jews are hidden in the zoo’s cages, tunnels, and inside the Żabińskis’ house. After some trepidation, Antonina agrees to help.
The Żabińskis continue smuggling Jews out of the Ghetto. In 1942, the Germans begin deporting Jews to death camps. Jan has no choice but to help load them into cattle cars under the Germans’ watch.
In 1943, two women rescued by Jan and disguised as Aryans by Antonina are executed in a Warsaw street. Several months later, after a failed uprising, the Germans plan to liquidate the Ghetto on Hitler’s birthday, also the first night of Passover. While the hidden Jews mournfully celebrate a secret Passover Seder, the Germans burn the Ghetto, killing those inside.
Several months later, Antonina gives birth to a baby girl, whom Ryszard names Teresa. As Heck’s attraction to Antonina intensifies, she struggles to fend him off while guarding the secret “guests.” Jan participates in the Warsaw uprising and is captured; Antonina fears him dead.
In January 1945, as Soviet troops force the Germans to retreat, the enemy begins evacuating Warsaw. Antonina seeks Heck’s help to find Jan, but he refuses and accuses her of resistance activity, attacking her in a sexual rage. She confesses that he repulses her, and Heck realizes she has duped him. Antonina helps her guests escape. Magda takes baby Teresa with her as Antonina hides Ryszard in the basement. Heck arrives in a fury with his men, discovering the secret drawings on the basement walls: Stars of David, dates, and guests drawn with animal faces.
Heck threatens to shoot Ryszard, ignoring Antonina’s pleas as he drags her son away. A shot rings out and Antonina collapses. Ryszard returns unharmed, and Heck leaves the zoo for good. Antonina and Ryszard join the march out of Warsaw, bringing a rabbit and one of Heck’s young bison. As they leave their home and the city is liberated, they release the bison into the woods.
Four months after the Nazi surrender, Warsaw begins rebuilding. Antonina, Ryszard and baby Teresa return to find the damaged zoo still standing, along with Jerzyk, their loyal zookeeper. Jan returns home, having survived a prison camp.
In the film’s final moment, the Żabińskis paint Stars of David on all the cages in the zoo.
An epilogue reveals that the Żabińskis saved 300 people. Lutz Heck returned to Berlin, where his zoo was destroyed by Allied bombings, and his efforts to recreate aurochs failed. The Żabińskis were recognized by Israel (Yad Vashem) for their righteous acts and defiance against the Germans. The Żabińskis rebuilt the Warsaw Zoo, which remains open to this day.
Cast
Jessica Chastain as Antonina Żabińska
Johan Heldenbergh as Jan Żabiński
Daniel Brühl as Lutz Heck
Michael McElhatton as Jerzyk
Iddo Goldberg as Maurycy Fraenkel
Efrat Dor as Magda Gross
Shira Haas as Urszula
Val Maloku as Ryszard Żabiński
Timothy Radford as Young Ryszard Żabiński
Martha Issová as Regina Kenigswein
Goran Kostić as Mr. Kinszerbaum
Arnošt Goldflam as Janusz Korczak
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