In Darkness may have an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film but that doesn’t necessarily make the wartime drama any easier to watch.

“It wasn’t easy to make neither if that’s any consolation to you,” said acclaimed Polish director Agniezka Holland about the harrowing tale.

“And for the people who survived the story, it was not easy to go through, so I think everybody’s on the same boat.”

Based on the true story of a Polish worker who hid a number of Jews in underground sewers for 14 months during the Second World War, it is a compelling and emotionally-charged drama that even affected its filmmaker.

“It was why I was hesitating (on doing it),” admitted Holland about the intensity of telling stories that delve into questions about the Holocaust. 

“I did two movies connected to the Holocaust and those two productions I did were costly, emotionally-speaking, so I didn’t know if I wanted to go again through this process (but) it is a
question I ask myself constantly (even if) I am not making a movie about that,” said Holland.

In Darkness presented other physical challenges as well.

Drawn by the call to literally shoot a movie in darkness, Holland took her cast and crew into actual Polish sewers to film much of the story.

“Shooting in the sewers was quite intense,” said Holland. 

“We wanted it to be very real, to express more than describe.

“So to be close with the cast and be with them in this place, in this space and this light … (but) the biggest challenge was to make it dark but at the same time see what you have to see.”