Then they were hidden in empty cages and in a network of tunnels. Also, they promised to gather the slop accumulating in the nearby Warsaw ghetto to feed the animals. To Heck, it seemed like a win-win - but, in fact, the Zabinskis and other members of the resistance smuggled families into the zoo by putting them in barrels and covering them with the garbage intended for the pigs. They convinced Heck to let them raise pigs on the grounds, ostensibly to feed the troops. They also hid a close personal friend, sculptress Magdalena Gross (Efrat Dor, an Israeli actress).Īnd then they decided to do more.
Cast members of the zookeepers wife full#
It was a decision the Zabinskis took full advantage of - Jan (played by Johan Heldenbergh) used the empty cages to store arms for the resistance and eventually went off to fight with the partisans himself. Still, Heck had many of their best (and rarest) remaining species transferred to Berlin for breeding purposes, leaving the zoo relatively empty. He protected the couple, in part because of his respect for their accomplishments in building a world-renowned zoo, and in part because of his not-so-hidden crush on Antonina. The Zabinskis were spared, and might have lived a relatively comfortable life during the occupation: A prewar colleague from Berlin, Lutz Heck (Daniel Brühl), was appointed the Reich’s chief zoologist. People came from all over to walk its grounds, view the animals and perhaps catch a glimpse of the quirky Antonina on one of her daily bicycle rides around the facility, often with a menagerie of ostriches trailing behind.īut as the film chronicles, bombs leveled much of the zoo during the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, killing a substantial number of its animal residents. It’s no surprise, then, that she jumped at the opportunity to portray Antonina Zabinski in “The Zookeepers Wife.” It’s an emotionally moving film about World War II that tells the true story of a heroine and her husband, Jan, who put themselves - and their children - at great risk in order to save 300 Jews by hiding them at the Warsaw Zoo, which they ran.īefore the war, the zoo was considered one of the finest in Europe. But I am definitely inspired by those characters who push against the box society has put them in.” “I know not every woman is a strong woman.
“I look for characters that challenge the status quo,” Chastain, who snagged a Golden Globe for her work in “Zero Dark Thirty,” told JTA in a telephone interview. There’s Maya, the fictional CIA agent in “Zero Dark Thirty,” whose work led Seal Team Six to Osama bin Laden Melissa Lewis, the heroic mission commander who refuses to abandon a teammate in “The Martian,” and Elizabeth Sloan, the accept-no-prisoners Washington lobbyist who takes on the gun industry in “Miss Sloan.”
( JTA) - Strong women are right in actor Jessica Chastain’s wheelhouse.
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