52 Films by Women Vol 2. 24. THE ZOOKEEPER'S WIFE (Director: Niki Caro)
Never confuse an important subject with an important film. The Zookeeper’s Wife has an important subject, focussing on the selfless work done under threat of death by Antonina Žabińska and her husband Jan Žabiński in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War Two. Together, they provided refuge for some 300 Jewish men, women and children, smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto, in the grounds of Warsaw’s bombed-out zoo that they formerly managed. Madame Žabińska’s houseguests were lodged in disused cages and underground tunnels whilst the zoo was re-purposed as a pig farm, producing meat (eventually) for the Polish Resistance. Of the many guests, there were only two fatalities – a mother and daughter discovered by the Nazis and killed. Madame Žabińska had a German admirer, Lutz Heck, who, whilst not exactly looking the other way, ensured at least that she was above reproach. The killing of the zoo’s stock by trigger happy Nazis left Madame Žabińska devastated. She was also a music lover...