War

I finally saw the Zookeeper's Wife last night. It's sad that I'd rather watch a movie about WWII than the current news about possible war in Syria. Unfortunately there was a preview for An Inconvenient Sequel, and it featured two clips of Trump, so I couldn't escape from him after all. It dredged up more dread and anxiety about the future. Worse yet, someone in the audience laughed after the trailer, like they too thought climate change was a fucking hoax. I hate living in a red state and feeling so helpless. Trump being in Mar-a-lago yet again during this crisis makes it even more of a farce.


The movie itself was good, though sometimes I found the dialogue too soft or muddled to hear clearly. Especially with their Polish accents to contend with, can the actors please not mumble? It was interesting to see how they used the zoo, and the cover of a pig farm to help so many Jews escape the Warsaw ghetto.

I however did not like the argument that Jan and Antonina had when Jan became jealous about the Nazi who keeps visiting to monitor his bison breeding program. Antonina explained that she was all alone at the house with no protection from the Nazi, so she has to pretend to be friendly with him and deal with him trying to flirt and touch her. She's afraid; she's not encouraging him of her own free will. Jan just kept raging in jealousy and claiming that she has no idea of the horrors he has to deal with every day going to the ghetto to sneak more people out. Sure she doesn't physically see the horrors, but I'm sure she could hear about them from the Jewish "guests" at the zoo, whom she has to hide and care for, in addition to her own son. In particular, Antonina had to comfort the Jewish girl who got raped, and we learned that Antonina's father got killed and her own family lived on the run during her childhood, so I think Antonina is far from innocent about trauma. I really disliked the husband Jan in that moment, even if he was simply lashing out because he almost got caught by a Nazi. He never even apologizes to his wife for that argument; he just has sex with her that night. I hope after the war he was sorry when he heard about Antonina's near rape while he was a prisoner. Maybe the argument was just Hollywood fictionalization for drama. I hope so.