Review of In Darkness (2011) by Kong M — 25 May 2012

'In Darkness' proved to be a worthy Polish contender against the foreign film winner A Separation. This film to me is a more successful version of 'Schindler's List' - also similar in terms of the portrayal of an unlikely hero who had no reason to save the Jews but did.

Why so? Schindler's List covered a much wider span, all above ground, also a longer time as well, and yet failed miserably as it chose to tone down ALOT of what could have happened in reality given the weight of the situation. I expected more from it as it is not even realistically close to some of the other commendable Holocaust-related matter work of art, including Band of Brothers. However this film focuses not on the atrocities in the surface, but more on the intricate details in its core matter - things happening underground. Roughly half of the film happens inside the sewers, but with enough details that reminded me of "Hunger" even though they are not full-fledged in my opinion. We not only get to know the conflicts between the hero, his non-Jew community and the Jews, but also the portrayal of the Jews themselves which is by far the most 'normalized' of all the Jews in other Holocaust movies (i.e. not overly depressed or in a state of hopelessness, they actually hate each other, some of them are annoying/ traitors/ greedy etc).

I too believe things are pretty toned down as well in this film, as living under the sewers in such a situation where the water unusable, the stench unbearable (and augmented by the dead bodies), absence of light, hygiene and proneness to diseases/fatal accidents could easily cause multiple levels of discord and unwanted psychological behaviours. I have read that the director deviated from the real account a little as some of the characters 'killed' are actually survivors today. But in a way, maybe it is for the better as the film is already disturbing enough. Also, some of the scenes done above ground are a little bit flawed or unnatural...hence I could not grant a rating above 4. But all in all, this is a well made Holocaust film but it is also a film about humanity much better than average.