The Zookeeper's Wife

Dr. Jan Żabiński (Johan Heldenbergh) is director of the Warsaw Zoo, one of the largest in 1930s Europe, assisted by his wife, Antonina (Jessica Chastain). On 1 September 1939, the aerial bombardment of Warsaw and Invasion of Poland commences. Antonina and her son Ryszard (Timothy Radford and later, Val Maloku) barely survive. As Polish resistance collapses, Dr. Lutz Heck (Daniel Brühl), head of the Berlin Zoo and Adolf Hitler's chief zoologist and Jan's professional rival, visits the zoo while Jan is away. He offers to house the prized animals until after the war, later returning with Nazi soldiers to shoot the rest. He develops a romantic interest in Antonina.