“The Zookeeper’s
Wife” is the true story of Jan and Antonina Zabinski. They ran the Warsaw Zoo
before Germany invaded Poland in 1939. The movie is based on Diane Ackerman’s
nonfiction book. Ackerman was inspired by the unpublished diary of Antonina
Zabinska and Jan Zabinski. It was directed by Niki Caro. She had female
producers, a female camera operator, a female production designer, a female
stunt coordinator, and a female set designer. The first cut of the film was
over 3 hours long. All of the animals are real, the movie did not use CGI. The movie was a modest success at the box
office.
The film begins
in the summer of 1939. The head of the Berlin Zoo, Heck Lutz (Danial Bruhl),
visits the Warsaw Zoo and is hosted by Jan (Johan Heldenbergh) and Antonina
(Jessica Chastain). He seems to be a nice guy and Bruhl does not always play villains.
The zoo is bombed on Sept. 1, 1939 as part of the Nazi invasion. Jan wants to
flee, but Antonina refuses to leave the surviving animals. Heck arrives soon
after. He tells the couple that the zoo’s animals are going to be killed for
the war effort (meat and soup), but he will save the prized ones for his zoo. The
Zabinski’s convince him to allow them to convert the zoo into a pig farm to
produce pork. Heck agrees because he can
use the zoo as his laboratory for his quest to recreate the extinct auroch (the
ancestor of modern cattle). Part of the reason for Heck’s interest in the zoo
is he is interested in Antonina. She has to fend him off as she hides Jewish
families at the zoo. Jan smuggles Jews out of the ghetto in trucks loaded with
slop for the pigs. The Zabinskis have put themselves in a very dangerous
situation.
“The Zookeeper’s
Wife” is an inspiring tale and it tells a different Holocaust story. It helps
that it is true because otherwise it could be deemed a white savior movie. The
acting benefits from Chastain and Bruhl who are always stellar. Bruhl’s
character is similar to his in “Inglourious Basterds”. Charming, at first. Other
than the two stars, the film is average. It does not attempt to horrify the
audience. It assumes you know that what happened in the Warsaw Ghetto was
terrible. It has more suspense than terror. There are no ridiculous escapes,
but some close calls. I assume the lack of fireworks is because the movie
adheres to the true story. Does it?
The basics of the
story are factual. The Zabinskis did use their zoo to save Jews. However, much
of their story has been fictionalized. Most of the fudging has to do with Heck.
He was the head of the Berlin Zoo and he was obsessed with the auroch. He
benefited greatly from Nazi conquests because he could acquire animals for his
experiments from many zoos. He was personal friends with Herman Goering and
some of his “cattle” ended up on Goering’s estate. (He created “Heck cattle”
and “Heck horses”, but they are not aurochs.) He did not start out as a friend
to the Zabinskis and was not a sexual predator as the film depicts him. There
is a mention of him in Antonina’s diary, but she describes him as being very
kind. There was no insinuation of a romance, but he might have been sweet on
her. He did organize the killing of all the “unimportant” animals. This
included a hunting expedition on the zoo grounds, on a drunken New Years Eve.
After this, he left Warsaw and did not have any more interactions with the
Zabinskis. He did not pretend to shoot their son Ryszard, but another Nazi
officer did. Jan was appointed director of all public parks in Warsaw. This
allowed him access to the Ghetto. He did not work alone is getting Jews out,
but was allied to the Jewish Combat Organization and the Polish Underground
State. He did not smuggle Jews out under pig slops. He did turn the zoo into a
pig farm and smuggled pork into the Ghetto. The Nazis would not have been duped
that easily. Antonina, an accomplished pianist, did use music to warn the Jews
that the Nazis were there. There were some close calls, but the scene where
Antonina rushes home to save the hiders before Heck arrives is pure Hollywood.
The families had been moved before the Warsaw Uprising because Jan was aware of
when it would happen. They did not leave Stars of David on the walls of their
hiding place. Jan fought in the uprising, was wounded, and captured. The most
commendable service the movie does for history is it includes Janusz Korczak.
He ran an orphanage in the ghetto and he did accompany his kids to death in a
concentration camp. The Zabinskis were recognized as Righteous Amongst the Nations
after the war.
Knowing the
history behind the movie, I would say that the movie took some liberties to
make Antonina the main character and invented a romance between her and Heck. Jan
got shortchanged in the script. However, the movie does a good job highlighting
four fascinating people. You learn about them and are entertained in the
bargain. I have to give credit to a Holocaust movie that focuses on a Gentile woman
who risked her life in the Holocaust. She was not the only one and represents
all the others.
