Unlikely Hero in an Underground Hideout, Away From the Nazis

Agnieszka Holland’s “In Darkness,” inspired by the real exploits of a Polish sewer worker and sometime burglar named Leopold Socha, who helped Jews during the Nazi occupation of Lvov (now Lviv, in Ukraine), provides the latest evidence that the Holocaust movie has become a genre in its own right. Even a true story can follow the familiar conventions of film narrative, and this tale of a righteous gentile selflessly assisting in the survival of a handful of persecuted Jews is no exception.

This is not to say that there is anything wrong with the movie. It is suspenseful, horrifying and at times intensely moving. But the ease with which it elicits these responses from the audience feels more opportunistic than insightful. Feature films about the Holocaust are often celebrated for preserving memory and raising awareness of the pervasive horror and occasional heroism of a fast-receding history. But who among the ticket-buyers is likely to be unaware of the broad outlines (and even the terrible particulars) of the Nazi genocide?

You do not go to a movie like this to learn, but rather to feel: to pity the victims, despise the villains, and identify with both the vulnerable and the brave. “In Darkness,” which was written by David F. Shamoon (drawing on the book “In the Sewers of Lvov” by Robert Marshall), obligingly supplies the desired emotions, which means that, in spite of its grim setting, it is finally more comforting than troubling.

Socha, known as Poldek, is played by Robert Wieckiewicz, a wonderful Polish actor with meaty features and an engagingly blunt manner. Early in the film Poldek and his young colleague (and criminal sidekick), Szczepek (Krzysztof Skonieczny), who use the sewer tunnels as escape routes and hiding places for their loot, stumble on a nightmarish scene in the forests outside town. What they see — a group of naked, terrified women being chased and shot by German soldiers — serves as a haunting reminder of the fact, amply documented in Claude Lanzmann’s “Shoah,” that ordinary Poles knew what was happening to their Jewish neighbors.

The liquidation of the ghetto offers Poldek and Szczepek new possibilities for looting. They also discover that a small group of Jews have taken refuge in the underground waterways, hiding in the shadows amid the waste and vermin. Poldek helps them, first as a business proposition — they have money to pay him — and eventually out of a sense of moral obligation. His ethical awakening provides one of the film’s dramatic arcs as, like Oskar Schindler in the paradigmatic Righteous-Gentile movie “Schindler’s List,” Poldek evolves from self-seeking operator to humanitarian hero. He must overcome the skepticism of his wife, the ever-present threat of the Germans and the intrusions of Bortnik (Michal Zurawski), an old prison buddy who now wears the uniform of the Nazi-supporting Ukrainian militia.

Poldek’s Jews, meanwhile, huddle in darkness and enact their own parables of human nature under duress. They seem as carefully selected for diversity as the soldiers in a World War II platoon picture. There are, among others, a wealthy, sophisticated couple (Maria Schrader and Herbert Knaup); a philandering husband; a fallen woman; a pious man; a drug addict; two children; and a handsome, clean-shaven tough guy (Marcin Bosak, somewhat resembling Daniel Craig in “Defiance”). In the course of their 14 months in the sewers some will die, some will fall in love, and a baby will be born — all of it rendered in shadowy, glimmering half-light by Ms. Holland and the cinematographer, Jolanta Dylewska.

The visual contrast between the worlds above and below ground is handled beautifully and evocatively, and it gives “In Darkness” the dreamlike quality of a fairy tale. Constriction and freedom — and the assertion of individual will in cruelly oppressive circumstances — are themes Ms. Holland has explored before, in “The Secret Garden,”“Washington Square” and her earlier World War II drama, “Europa Europa.”

Those films were somewhat more attentive to psychological nuance. Here there is greater emphasis on the social complexities of wartime Lvov, which are represented above all by the linguistic polyphony of the dialogue. German, Yiddish, Polish and Ukrainian compete for attention, and the languages are markers not only of ethnicity but also of class and ideology.

This cacophonous music — more than the pushy, maudlin musical soundtrack — provides “In Darkness” with a kernel of authenticity, as does Mr. Wieckiewicz’s stoical performance. And as I have said, it is not a bad movie: it is touching, warm and dramatically satisfying. But that, given the subject matter, is exactly the problem.

“In Darkness” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Graphic violence and pervasive terror.

IN DARKNESS

Opens on Friday in New York and Los Angeles.

Directed by Agnieszka Holland; written by David F. Shamoon, based on the book “In the Sewers of Lvov” by Robert Marshall; director of photography, Jolanta Dylewska; edited by Michal Czarnecki; music by Antoni Komasa-Lazarkiewicz; production design by Erwin Prib; costumes by Katarzyna Lewinska and Jagna Janicka; produced by Steffen Reuter, Patrick Knippel, Marc-Daniel Dichant, Leander Carell, Juliusz Machulski, Paul Stephens and Eric Jordan; released by Sony Pictures Classics. In Manhattan at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema, Broadway at 62nd Street. In Polish, German, Yiddish and Ukrainian, with English subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 23 minutes.

WITH: Robert Wieckiewicz (Leopold Socha), Benno Fürmann (Mundek Margulies), Agnieszka Grochowska (Klara Keller), Maria Schrader (Paulina Chiger), Herbert Knaup (Ignacy Chiger), Marcin Bosak (Yanek Weiss), Michal Zurawski (Bortnik), Krzysztof Skonieczny (Szczepek), and Julia Kijowska (Chaja).