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dewicking Jerk To Nice Guy Plot
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* JerkToNiceGuyPlot: Poldek Socha starts off as a petty thief and black marketer, and an anti-Semite. He is only interested in the Jews of the ghetto for how much money he can make off of them. He only volunteers to shelter a dozen people in the sewers so he won't lose an income stream. When Mr. Chiger reveals to Poldek the location of his hidden jewelry, so Poldek can sell it and buy food, Poldek's first instinct is to abandon the Jews in the sewer and simply give the jewelry to his wife. By the end of the film he is helping them for free, at great risk to his own life.
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* HonoraryUncle: Socha’s daughter calls his fellow thief and sewer worker Uncle Szczepek.
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* PragmaticAdaptation: The real-life story is trimmed down to allow for a smaller cast and shorter running time.
** Socha had two companions instead of one when the Jews stumbled across him and both survived the war, unlike the fictionalized Szczepek. Unlike Szczepek, Socha's partners kept helping the Jews after the fugitives' money ran out (one visited the sewers with Socha while the other served as a lookout on the surface), although they took some persuading from Socha before agreeing to this.
** The real-life RestrictedRescueOperation initially saved 21 people instead of 12, but one drowned, one got sick and died, and nine eventually left to take their chances on the surface (all but one were being killed within minutes of leaving the sewers).
** During the last few months in hiding, the Jews were joined by an escaped POW from the Russian army who was lovers with Socha’s sister-in-law. The man quickly grew claustrophobic and had to be kept prisoner because they couldn’t trust him to keep their secret if he left.
** Socha had two companions instead of one when the Jews stumbled across him and both survived the war, unlike the fictionalized Szczepek. Unlike Szczepek, Socha's partners kept helping the Jews after the fugitives' money ran out (one visited the sewers with Socha while the other served as a lookout on the surface), although they took some persuading from Socha before agreeing to this.
** The real-life RestrictedRescueOperation initially saved 21 people instead of 12, but one drowned, one got sick and died, and nine eventually left to take their chances on the surface (all but one were being killed within minutes of leaving the sewers).
** During the last few months in hiding, the Jews were joined by an escaped POW from the Russian army who was lovers with Socha’s sister-in-law. The man quickly grew claustrophobic and had to be kept prisoner because they couldn’t trust him to keep their secret if he left.
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* SeamlessSpontaneousLie: When Socha’s daughter accidentally mentions Jews in front of Bortnick, there's a tense pause before he demands more information. She claims that she calls her toys Jews while playing imaginary games, and Bortnick buys it.
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* TunnelKing: Socha knows all of the best ways to navigate through the sewer system and avoid detection. Although the film doesn’t mention it, his real-life counterpart tunneled into a bank several years before the war and hid the money in a sewer pipe before being caught.
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''In Darkness'' is a 2011 film from Poland directed by Agnieszka Holland.
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/21191186.jpg]]
''In Darkness'' (W ciemnoĊci) is a 2011 film from Poland directed by Agnieszka Holland.
''In Darkness'' (W ciemnoĊci) is a 2011 film from Poland directed by Agnieszka Holland.
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* TheApocalypseBringsOutTheBestInPeople: Poldek is a petty thief and a black marketer who dislikes Jews. The dire necessity of the moment brings out the best in him, and after Mr. Chiger tells him they have no money left to pay him with, he takes care of them for free.
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* BasedOnATrueStory: A [[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2118787/In-Darkness-Spencer-Brights-story-friends-secret-past-Oscar-nominated-film.html pretty]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Socha accurate]] rendition of how one Pole saved ten Jews by hiding them in the sewers. One of the women in the sewer really did smother a newborn baby.
* BlackMarket: How Poldek comes to know the Jews of the Lviv ghetto in the first place, by making secret trips in so he can sell off their valuables.
* BlackMarket: How Poldek comes to know the Jews of the Lviv ghetto in the first place, by making secret trips in so he can sell off their valuables.
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* JerkToNiceGuyPlot: Poldek Socha starts off as a petty thief and black marketer, and an anti-Semite. He is only interested in the Jews of the ghetto for how much money he can make off of them. He only volunteers to shelter a dozen people in the sewers so he won't lose an income stream. When Mr. Chiger reveals to Poldek the location of his hidden jewelry, so Poldek can sell it and buy food, Poldek's first instinct is to abandon the Jews in the sewer and simply give the jewelry to his wife. By the end of the film he is helping them for free, at great risk to his own life.
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* RestrictedRescueOperation: As chaos reigns outside with the Nazis clearing the ghetto, Poldek says, quite coldly and cruelly but also correctly, that he can't take hide all the Jews in Lviv, so he'll only take 12. This necessitates some quick decisions. Janek abandons his wife and daughter and takes his mistress instead.
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* SurvivorshipBias: Like almost all Holocaust films, this one focuses on survivors (and in fact mostly on the Christian who saved them).
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''In Darkness'' is a 2011 film from Poland directed by Agnieszka Holland.
It's based on a true story. 1943, Lwow (Polish before the war, "Lviv" under the Ukraine after the war). The city has been under Nazi occupation for two years. Leopold "Poldek" Socha is a sewer inspector who, with his young sidekick Szczepek, has a side business as a burglar and a trafficker in stolen goods. His access to, and knowledge of, the sewers allows him to get inside the Jewish ghetto, otherwise completely sealed off. Poldek does a predatory business with the desperate, starving Jews of the ghetto, taking their money or their valuables, and coming back with food--taking, of course, a slice of the money for himself.
Poldek is off to the ghetto one day in June when he hears the sounds of gunfire and violence: the Nazis are liquidating the ghetto, taking the last remnant of the Jewish community to concentration camps and death camps. Poldek takes about a dozen Jews into the sewer to hide. The Jews--the Chiger family, faithless husband Janek, Janek's mistress Chaja, a tough guy named Mundek who has smuggled goods to Poldek, a woman named Klara that Mundek is sweet on, and others--continue to give Poldek their money and goods in payment for him bringing them food and supplies. But what will Poldek do when their money runs out?
----
!!Tropes:
* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The bulk of it is big enough for people to walk around upright, although sometimes they have to crawl through connecting tunnels.
* AskAStupidQuestion: Little Krystyna Chiger may be a terrified child, but she still gets off a good bit of snark when Poldek finds her and her smaller brother in the sewer and Krystyna tells him they're lost.
-->'''Poldek''': Where are your parents?\\
'''Krystyna''': If we knew, we wouldn't be lost.
* {{Chiaroscuro}}: The scenes shot in the sewers are lit only by candles, flashlights, and the occasional light streaming in from a vent, making for a lot of shadowy scenes.
* ComfortingComforter: How do we know Poldek is a good dad? He tucks his little daughter Stefcia in.
* DeadGuyOnDisplay: After Poldek and Mundek are forced to kill the German soldier, the Nazis kill fifty Poles in retribution. Ten are hung in the public square with signs saying that they were killed for the murder of the soldier. Poldek is horrified to see that one of them is his friend Szczepek.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: After fourteen months of suffering and tragedy, the ten remaining Jews are liberated, and survive the war.
* FanDisservice: Poldek and Szczepek are running through the woods after burglarizing a home when they see other people running through the woods: naked Jewish women, screaming in terror as they are driven through the forest by SS goons. Moments later the two Poles reach a clearing and see the corpses of the women in a ravine.
* FauxAffablyEvil: A senior German officer shoots a Jewish prisoner in the head, then takes his cap and gives it to a hatless Mundek, making a point to politely say "Bitte" as he hands it over.
* FinalSolution: Underway in Poland, as the Nazis are exterminating Polish Jewry. Poldek hides a small group of Jews in the sewers.
* ImpairmentShot: A couple of the Jews suffer from blurred vision as they climb up into the daylight, free after spending over a year in the sewer.
* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: Poldek and Szczepek are burglarizing a nice home when they blunder into a Polish woman and her Nazi lover. Poldek is knocking the Nazi around when the Nazi pulls a gun from a cabinet. He points it at Poldek, pulls the trigger, and gets an empty ''click''. Poldek knocks the German out before he and Szczepek make their escape.
* JitterCam: Used heavily in the scenes where Jews are fleeing as the Nazis are liquidating the ghetto.
* JustFollowingOrders: Bortnik, obviously feeling guilty when Poldek runs into him shooting a line of Jews, says "It's our duty."
* LesCollaborateurs: Bortnik, a Ukranian who has joined the SS and become a policeman who massacres Jews. Poldek knows him and Bortnik regards the two of them as friends, but Poldek is petrified that Bortnik will discover his secret.
* TheNeedsOfTheMany: The party, down to ten, is hiding out under a Christian church, where they have to be quiet as noise will be heard. Chaja gives birth to a baby, which cries. She smothers it.
* ShowerScene: You might not expect one in a Holocaust movie set in a sewer, but there it is. Klara is bathing in what appears to be fresh water falling from a storm drain when Mundek arrives. She clutches a coat to hide her nakedness as he tells her that her sister refused to leave the concentration camp with him. SexForSolace apparently follows.
* ThunderEqualsDownpour: A clap of thunder while Poldek is in church is followed by torrential rain. This is very bad, as the storm runoff floods the sewer and threatens to drown the people hiding in it.
* TraumaticHaircut: Among the ways the Germans brutalize Jews is by hacking off an Orthodox Jew's long beard, taking some skin with the hair.
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: Titles tell the audience that Poldek was killed less than a year after the Russians took Lviv, when he was hit by a Red Army truck. The ten surviving Jews all left Poland after the war, with Krystyna Chiger, the little girl, eventually writing a memoir called ''The Girl in the Green Sweater''.
It's based on a true story. 1943, Lwow (Polish before the war, "Lviv" under the Ukraine after the war). The city has been under Nazi occupation for two years. Leopold "Poldek" Socha is a sewer inspector who, with his young sidekick Szczepek, has a side business as a burglar and a trafficker in stolen goods. His access to, and knowledge of, the sewers allows him to get inside the Jewish ghetto, otherwise completely sealed off. Poldek does a predatory business with the desperate, starving Jews of the ghetto, taking their money or their valuables, and coming back with food--taking, of course, a slice of the money for himself.
Poldek is off to the ghetto one day in June when he hears the sounds of gunfire and violence: the Nazis are liquidating the ghetto, taking the last remnant of the Jewish community to concentration camps and death camps. Poldek takes about a dozen Jews into the sewer to hide. The Jews--the Chiger family, faithless husband Janek, Janek's mistress Chaja, a tough guy named Mundek who has smuggled goods to Poldek, a woman named Klara that Mundek is sweet on, and others--continue to give Poldek their money and goods in payment for him bringing them food and supplies. But what will Poldek do when their money runs out?
----
!!Tropes:
* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The bulk of it is big enough for people to walk around upright, although sometimes they have to crawl through connecting tunnels.
* AskAStupidQuestion: Little Krystyna Chiger may be a terrified child, but she still gets off a good bit of snark when Poldek finds her and her smaller brother in the sewer and Krystyna tells him they're lost.
-->'''Poldek''': Where are your parents?\\
'''Krystyna''': If we knew, we wouldn't be lost.
* {{Chiaroscuro}}: The scenes shot in the sewers are lit only by candles, flashlights, and the occasional light streaming in from a vent, making for a lot of shadowy scenes.
* ComfortingComforter: How do we know Poldek is a good dad? He tucks his little daughter Stefcia in.
* DeadGuyOnDisplay: After Poldek and Mundek are forced to kill the German soldier, the Nazis kill fifty Poles in retribution. Ten are hung in the public square with signs saying that they were killed for the murder of the soldier. Poldek is horrified to see that one of them is his friend Szczepek.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: After fourteen months of suffering and tragedy, the ten remaining Jews are liberated, and survive the war.
* FanDisservice: Poldek and Szczepek are running through the woods after burglarizing a home when they see other people running through the woods: naked Jewish women, screaming in terror as they are driven through the forest by SS goons. Moments later the two Poles reach a clearing and see the corpses of the women in a ravine.
* FauxAffablyEvil: A senior German officer shoots a Jewish prisoner in the head, then takes his cap and gives it to a hatless Mundek, making a point to politely say "Bitte" as he hands it over.
* FinalSolution: Underway in Poland, as the Nazis are exterminating Polish Jewry. Poldek hides a small group of Jews in the sewers.
* ImpairmentShot: A couple of the Jews suffer from blurred vision as they climb up into the daylight, free after spending over a year in the sewer.
* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: Poldek and Szczepek are burglarizing a nice home when they blunder into a Polish woman and her Nazi lover. Poldek is knocking the Nazi around when the Nazi pulls a gun from a cabinet. He points it at Poldek, pulls the trigger, and gets an empty ''click''. Poldek knocks the German out before he and Szczepek make their escape.
* JitterCam: Used heavily in the scenes where Jews are fleeing as the Nazis are liquidating the ghetto.
* JustFollowingOrders: Bortnik, obviously feeling guilty when Poldek runs into him shooting a line of Jews, says "It's our duty."
* LesCollaborateurs: Bortnik, a Ukranian who has joined the SS and become a policeman who massacres Jews. Poldek knows him and Bortnik regards the two of them as friends, but Poldek is petrified that Bortnik will discover his secret.
* TheNeedsOfTheMany: The party, down to ten, is hiding out under a Christian church, where they have to be quiet as noise will be heard. Chaja gives birth to a baby, which cries. She smothers it.
* ShowerScene: You might not expect one in a Holocaust movie set in a sewer, but there it is. Klara is bathing in what appears to be fresh water falling from a storm drain when Mundek arrives. She clutches a coat to hide her nakedness as he tells her that her sister refused to leave the concentration camp with him. SexForSolace apparently follows.
* ThunderEqualsDownpour: A clap of thunder while Poldek is in church is followed by torrential rain. This is very bad, as the storm runoff floods the sewer and threatens to drown the people hiding in it.
* TraumaticHaircut: Among the ways the Germans brutalize Jews is by hacking off an Orthodox Jew's long beard, taking some skin with the hair.
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: Titles tell the audience that Poldek was killed less than a year after the Russians took Lviv, when he was hit by a Red Army truck. The ten surviving Jews all left Poland after the war, with Krystyna Chiger, the little girl, eventually writing a memoir called ''The Girl in the Green Sweater''.
