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Parents should also be aware that smoking and drinking are frequent in this period drama. Particularly heart wrenching are the ones who sacrifice themselves to protect the more vulnerable, such as small children. Other disturbing depictions include people who have frozen to death, are gunned down, or are burned by fire. These include a young girl (Shira Haas) who is presumably raped and shown bruised and bleeding, a woman (Efrat Dor) separated from her imprisoned husband (Iddo Goldberg) and a couple of escaped Jews who are found and shot (on screen).
#THE ZOOKEEPERS WIFE MOVIE MOVIE#
Despite the great risk to themselves and their young son (played first by Timothy Radford and later by Val Maloku), the Zabinskis become part of a network of determined rescuers.Īlthough based on a true story, this movie uses various fictional characters to depict the horrors of the Holocaust. Even more desperate to save these endangered humans, the couple decides to use their zoo, which has underground tunnels and cages, to hide as many as they can. But Jan fears that the handsome Lutz Heck, who seems smitten by Antonina’s beauty, is merely eyeing up specimens he wants for his own collection.Īs World War II continues, the Zabinski’s also watch as their Jewish neighbors are rounded up and sent to the Warsaw Ghetto. Desperate to save any she can, Antonina agrees to let Lutz Heck (Daniel Brühl), a former colleague and head of the Berlin zoo, take the best of their stock back to his institution. Those that survive are ordered to be liquidated and used for food and supplies. A lot of animals are killed (some are shot on screen and many bloody carcasses are shown). Yet all that changes after Hitler’s army invades their country, and the Nazis occupy their city.įirst the zoo sustains major damages during a bombing raid, and then German soldiers take over the compound and use it as an armory. The pair are well respected in society, and their facility is an important part of the community. Jan Zabinski (Johan Heldenbergh) and his animal-whisperer wife Antonina (Jessica Chastain) are the owners and keepers of the Warsaw, Poland Zoo.