Alberto’s Pick: The Zookeeper’s Wife directed by Niki Caro

Stars: Jessica Chastain, Johan Heldenbergh and Daniel Daniel Brühl

The Zookeeper’s Wife tells the true story of Jan (Johan Heldenbergh) and Antonina Zabinski (Jessica Chastain), who own the Warsaw Zoo.  With Germany invading Poland, the couple sees their animals killed and their facility taken over by Nazi officials, including Berlin Zoo keeper and Hitler associate Dr. Lutz Heck (Daniel Brühl). As if the animal massacre and aerial bombing isn’t bad enough, there are also the Jews being taken to the concentration camps whose atrocities we know better than they do. The Zabinskis bravely begin hiding Jews facing such a fate.

Adapted from the 2007 book of the same name by Diane Ackerman, Zookeeper’s Wife manages to present the Holocaust from a new angle we haven’t seen before.