Zoo with a difference
Two-time Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain stars in The Zookeeper’s Wife in the title role of Antonina Zabinska, a real-life working wife and mother who became a hero to hundreds during World War II.
Niki Caro (Whale Rider, North Country) directs from Angela Workman’s screenplay, adapted from Diane Ackerman’s book and based on Antonina’s diaries.
The time is 1939, The place Poland, homeland of Antonina (portrayed by Chastain) and her husband, Dr Jan Zabinski (Johan Heldenbergh of The Broken Circle Breakdown).
Devoted to each other, the couple thrive as personal and professional partners; the Warsaw Zoo flourishes under Jan’s stewardship and Antonina’s care.
Antonina rises every day to tend to both her family and their menagerie as the gates to the majestic zoo open in welcome… until the entrance is slammed shut and the zoo is crippled in an attack as the Germans invade.
Stunned, the couple is forced to report to the Reich’s newly appointed chief zoologist, Lutz Heck (Golden Globe Award nominee Daniel Brühl). Heck envisions a new, selective breeding programme. Antonina and Jan covertly begin working with the Resistance after realising their zoo’s abandoned animal cages and underground tunnels can now secretly safeguard human life.
As the couple plans to save lives in the Warsaw Ghetto, Antonina places herself and her children at risk. – Citizen Reporter
Cast:
Jessica Chastain, Johan Heldenbergh and Michael McElhatton
Director: Classification:
Nick Caro 13 VP