Chastain is superb in radiating Antonina’s tenderness and compassion for the baby elephant as well as her fearlessness of the powerful giant at her back. She is kneeling in a party dress on a cold concrete floor, arms covered with birth muck, attempting to rescue a newborn elephant that has stopped breathing-with a highly stressed mother elephant directly behind her. Things turn serious for Antonina in her first character-revealing scene, set in the zoo’s wintry elephant enclave. A delightful pair of cuddly lynx cubs (in her bedroom, no less) complete the idyllic, pre-war picture. From the moment Chastain’s bubbly Antonina appears on screen, she wins us over with her exuberance and sheer enjoyment of the zoo’s wild and wacky animals. Her fresh-faced, emotional performance and animal-loving intensity is truly a thing of beauty. In the center of this maelstrom is an ethereal Jessica Chastain as Antonina, the zookeeper’s role. We are made to see a lost world filled with startling juxtapositions: a place of sanctuary and captivity, suffused with serenity and chaos, sustenance and deprivation, kindness and cruelty. Under Caro’s sensitive direction, indie cinematographer Andrij Parekh’s memorably poignant shots and images explore a woman’s experience of war through the real and allegorical nature of a zoo. (The film was actually shot over a period of 46 days in the Czech Republic and at the Zabinsky Villa in Warsaw.) The well researched historical, cultural and social details on set deepen both our understanding of this period and our feelings for it. Their zeal to capture and depict Ackerman’s original vision of that time and place is so strong, that the film literally springs to life with the gusto of animals in motion.Ī drive for authenticity permeates the artistic re-creation of the spirit and atmosphere of the Warsaw Zoo and the Jewish Ghetto in wartime and the ruthlessness of the Nazi occupation. (The Zabinskys saved 300 Jews and, in 1965, were recognized by Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, as “Righteous Among the Nations.”)Ĭaro unleashes the transformative power of Angela Workman’s brilliantly conceived script, based on Ackerman’s book and Antonina’s intimate war diaries, to shape the heart and soul of the film. Set primarily in the Warsaw Zoo and its surroundings from 1939-1945, the film tells the true story of Antonina and Jan Zabinsky, a heroic couple who dedicated the war years to hiding and saving Jews in the sanctuary of their zoo, under the very noses of the Nazis. Blessed with an exceptional cast and riveting dramatic material, she has made a classic WWII film for the ages. In bringing Diane Ackerman’s best-selling book (2007) of the same name to the screen, Caro has gifted us with a universal and resplendent tale of love, compassion and survival amid the horrors of war. THE ZOOKEEPER’S WIFE, by Director Niki Caro (NORTH COUNTRY, WHALE RIDER, McFARLAND, USA), is an astonishing cinematic masterpiece, destined for international acclaim and longevity.
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