Showing @ Cameo Cinema, Edinburgh until Thu 22 Mar
Agnieszka Holland / Poland/Germany/Canada / 2011 / 145 min
It’s likely that we’ll never be able to comprehend what life under Nazi control was like. Words cannot describe it, pictures cannot illustrate it and stories cannot convey it. Agnieszka Holland’s carefully considered film reminds us of the conditions endured by many Jewish citizens but doesn’t get lost in simply retelling the war.
Holland’s semi-biographical account documents the life of Leopold Socha (played here by Robert Wieckiewicz), a Polish sewer worker who hid a cohort of Jews in the network of underground drainage tunnels beneath Lvov. It follows the frequent close calls and builds a picture of what life was like living in almost total darkness with only a small number of torches and possessions.
There’s a threatening uncertainty which looms over Holland’s narrative; as a viewer, you aren’t sure if Socha will surface in a local idyll or during a Nazi raid. This sense of unknowing trickles down into the tunnels as the group aren’t aware of how the war is progressing, whether they will ever escape or even if Socha will return to help them. Since the film is set predominantly amongst the characters, there are a few wordy pitfalls, a tendency to sentimentalise the situation as the group slowly become a collective rather than a series of frightened individuals.
That said, the film is meticulously shot and elegantly realised. The beams of light from the torches pierce through the web of passageways and seem to dance in the shadows, becoming characters of their own. Clearly, the flickering glow feels heavily symbolic, much like the film’s title, but caters for the adaptability of humankind as the group become painfully acclimatised to the situation. Holland’s lengthy film is an endurance test, reflecting the marathon trial facing her characters and drawing out that sense of time as it slowly pushes along. Holland should be commended for her successful experiment with plotting which evades action and swiftness but remains focussed on the story it is there to tell.