A true story that took place in Warsaw zoo
Based on Diane Ackerman’s non-fiction book ‘The Zookeeper’s Wife’, the film revolving around one of the world famous zoos during the time of World War II is now being screened in Colombo.The war drama film directed by Niki Caro and written by Angela Workman, recounts the rescue of Jews from the Nazi invasion and stars Jessica Chastain, Johan Heldenbergh, Michael McElhatton and Daniel Brühl. The film also narrates the accounts of keepers of the Warsaw Zoo, Antonina and Jan Zabinski, who saved a large number of animals during the German invasion. The film had its premier at Warsaw, Poland, the very location the story was based on.
The story was also inspired by Diane Ackerman, the author’s use of the diaries of Antonina Żabińska, published in Poland as Ludzie i Zwierzęta which was translated as ‘People and Animals’ in 1968).
The film follows the story of Antonina and her husband, Jan, closely. Both worked at the Warsaw Zoo. Antonina helped her husband who was the director of the zoo. Animals were part of their family’s life, and the devastation that resulted from not only the attack on Warsaw and the subsequent pillaging of the zoo is well documented. The actions of Lutz Heck and his animal breeding experiments were also a matter of historical record, although the intimate relationship of the two protagonists, Antonina and Heck, were exaggerated. However, the defiance of Nazi occupation and ultimately, the rescue of over 300 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto were depicted accurately.
The film screened in the Competition at the Barcelona-Sant Jordi Film Festival on April 22, 2017.
