The Atlantic

<em>The Zookeeper’s Wife</em> Is a Staid Tale of Holocaust Heroism

Jessica Chastain stars as Antonina Zabinski, who used the Warsaw Zoo to save the lives of hundreds of Jews during World War II.
Source: Focus Features

The true story of is an arresting, if somewhat familiar, narrative of heroism in the Second World War. Antonina and Jan Żabiński, the owners and operators of the Warsaw Zoo in Poland, lived in relative security during the carnage of the Nazi occupation, though their facility was robbed of its animals by the invaders. Nonetheless, the couple put themselves at great risk by hiding some 300 Polish Jews in the zoo and spiriting them to safety. It’s a noble effort that deserves remembrance, and the director Niki Caro’s handsome realization of

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