I wonder if we’ve reached a saturation point where
Holocaust films are concerned. Sure, there are millions of stories to be told
from that travesty of human failure, but most would probably be fairly similar.
Real eye-opening awareness of the horrors of the Holocaust came about in the
70s when documentaries and dramatic films began to crop up in Britain and the United
States. In a cultural awareness sense this probably reached its pinnacle with
Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List
in 1993. Roman Polanski provided a new take on the subject by focusing not on
anyone’s heroism or courage but on one man’s blind luck to come out alive in The Pianist. Given all that’s come
before I really wonder what drove Polish director Agnieszka Holland to visit
the Holocaust for a third time with In
Darkness, adapted by David F. Shamoon from Robert Marshall’s book In the Sewers of Lvov which is itself based on a true story. That
is generally the nail in the coffin for any criticism leveled at a Holocaust
film.
