Jessica Chastain in The Zookeeper’s Wife: The Myth of the Good German

A genuine Holocaust era heroine, Antonina Zabinski could charm a tiger. Now her story is a major motion picture: The Zookeeper’s Wife, based on Diane Ackerman’s 2007 book on this historic figure has everything: animals in mortal danger, an excellent cast led by Jessica Chastain as Antonina, Daniel Bruhl as Lutz Heck, Der Fuhrer’s chief of zoos with a scientific agenda in sync with the Nazi desire for pure breeds, and an imperiled young boy, Antonina’s son Rys. Action packed, the story based on Antonina’s diary of that time, is a nail-biting account of the Warsaw occupation and the miraculous efforts of non-Jews, smuggling their friends out of the ghetto, risking their lives to help Jews survive.

On a recent Friday morning, Jessica Chastain was present on the 3^rd floor of the Essex Hotel to promote The Zookeeper’s Wife, as producer, not only the film’s star. She could not say enough about New Zealand based director Niki Caro’s work, her sensitivity to the authenticity of this history, while tweaking it for a sexy drama. To that end, I mention Daniel Bruhl’s role in the film. She says, the way he could create that puffed up character was to put on the Nazi uniform and, she expands her chest, fill himself with manhood. At a climactic moment in the film, after Antonina has rejected him, he has an opportunity to harm her.

“When I say, you’re a man of refinement and intelligence. You would never shoot a child,” Chastain says, recounting Antonina’s words. “It shows how the Nazis were indoctrinated, but had some humanity.” Really? That’s like saying thank you for not running me over when you had the chance. Were Nazis just boys brutalized, made bad? Feeling unsettled by her belief that German Nazis could be good deep down after all, I preferred her larger hope: “Wouldn’t it be great if we could be better people because of this film?”

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura