Following the efforts they do during the war, zookeepers married couple, Antonina and Jan Zabinski, who do their best as doctors during the German attacks for the Jewish, the thing that leads the life of dozens of them to death, but they face many challenges in saving the life of people.
How this was managed is truly inspiring, but the way it plays out in Angela Workman's script (adapted from Diane Ackerman's bestseller) is strictly by the numbers.
Niki Caro breaks out of the genre and emerges with a truly moving and original film. She uses the familiar structure of survival and rescue, but her focus is on the mechanics of cruelty itself in an unlikely setting.
The film could have been an excellent introduction to a relatively unknown historical figure, but it doesn't eloquently capture the essence of their real life struggle.
Jessica Chastain is relaxed with some actual lion cubs, and there's a bunny that should win an Oscar. But when the film pivots to the scared human beings down below, you get a hint of the weirder, tougher drama it might have been.
It doesn't burn through the conscience and haunt you forever like Schindler's List, but in spite of its laid-back reluctance to shock and horrify, it's never trivial or boring.
