In Darkness Review

In Darkness tells the true story of Leopold Socha, a Polish sewer inspector who harbored a group of terrified Jews in the underground sewers of Nazi-occupied Lvov. Unlike former Holocaust dramas, the film refuses to paint any of the characters (including the persecuted Jews) simply as unflawed victims. Director, Agnieszka Holland, instead dissects issues of morality and humanity both above and below ground, eschewing the sentimentality of Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. She spares the audience none of the brutality suffered by the Jews, including the pain inflicted upon themselves within the group. The film’s most striking scenes are those fleeting moments of humanity that remind the characters why they must endure this persecution. A child plays with a toy truck along the walls of the sewer while his sister sings an uplifting song. A young couple consummates their love for each other beneath a pile of worn sheets, providing a brief respite from their depressing reality.

For a film that spends most of its running-time underground, the cinematography is surprisingly laudable, capturing the squalid conditions of the dark sewers in vivid detail. The audience can almost smell the sewage and feel the damp. They share the characters’ claustrophobia and the sense of impending danger that looms throughout. As a result, In Darkness is not an easy watch. It is simultaneously haunting and uplifting. A worthy addition to the plethora of Holocaust dramas, it is certainly worth enduring.

4 stars