From acclaimed director Agnieszka Holland, In Darkness is based on a true story. Leopold Socha, a sewer worker and petty thief in Lvov, a Nazi occupied city in Poland, one day encounters a group of Jews trying to escape the liquidation of the ghetto. He hides them for money in the labyrinth of the town’s sewers beneath the bustling activity of the city above. What starts out as a straightforward and cynical business arrangement turns into something very unexpected, the unlikely alliance between Socha and the Jews as the enterprise seeps deeper into Socha’s conscience. The film is also an extraordinary story of survival as these men, women and children all try to outwit certain death during 14 months of ever increasing and intense danger. — (C) Sony Pictures Classics

V.A. Musetto

2011-12-09 original_score 3/4 freshness fresh

New York Post Holland has said that she wanted her harrowing and rewarding epic to run long so it would make viewers feel that they’re in the sewers as well. In this she succeeds.

Stephen Whitty

2011-12-09 original_score 3/4 freshness fresh

Newark Star-Ledger As many Holocaust stories as we’ve seen this one still has a fresh and important lesson about heroism – and how it has the habit of springing from some all-too-human places.

A.O. Scott

2011-12-08 original_score 3/5 freshness fresh

New York Times It is suspenseful horrifying and at times intensely moving. But the ease with which it elicits these responses from the audience feels more opportunistic than insightful.