Standing ovation for Holland in Toronto

In Darkness

The screening was the film’s world premiere and part of a promotional campaign for an Academy Award nomination.

The film has received rave reviews.

Steve Pond wrote in The Wrap: “Of all the films I've seen (or heard about) at Toronto, the closest thing to a slam-dunk Oscar nominee is the Polish Foreign-Language Film entry, Agnieszka Holland's In Darkness. Not only does it have perennial category heavyweight Sony Pictures Classics in its corner, but the film is a tremendously moving true story of a small group of Jews who hid from the Nazis for 14 months in the sewers of Lviv.”

According to Mike Goodridge, writing in the British periodical Screen Daily, "Holland does a terrific job of recreating the murky sewers, in both design and lighting, skillfully sustaining the drama even as it takes place in gloom. You can sense the stink and grime of the sewers, as the Jewish escapees battle rats, hunger, in-fighting and madness during their 14-month ordeal."

He describes Polish actor Robert Więckiewicz in the lead role of good samariitan Leopold Socha as “wonderfully expressive”.

Holland’s credits include two films on the Holocaust – Angry Harvest and Europa’ Europa.

Asked why make another Holocaust film by the ‘Hollywood Reporter’, she said: ‘It wasn’t an easy decision to make. It took two years. But I think it is a period we keep returning to because we have the same questions about it – why and how this happened. It was a terrible point in the history of humanity.

“And I’m not of the opinion that it all ended with World War II. And I think the people who died they need a realistic version of their story,” said the director.

In Darkness is currently having preview screenings in a Warsaw cinema. It is to go on general release in Poland in January 2012. (mk/nh)