AS PUBLISHED IN THE MARCH 28 ISSUE OF FF2 MEDIA:
Unknown stories of war heroes, particularly WWII, seldom are unearthed, but the stories of heroines of that era seem to be even more rare. The name Antonina Zabinski will soon be a recognizable name thanks to the film “The Zookeeper’s Wife,” based on the book by Diane Ackerman of the same name. The film, starring Jessica Chastain as the lead character, Antonina, had an overwhelming number of women at the helm including the director Niki Caro (“The Whale Rider”) with whom I had a chance to talk about her perspective of this historically significant story.
Niki, initially unaware of the higher than average number of women associated with this film, felt that it was “…appropriate given that it is the story of a woman in war time.” However, Caro said, “I hire the best person for the job, always. It just so happens that many of these were women, remarkably.” Recognizing that war films are typically from a male’s point of view, she said, “…but it occurs to me that war happens to women, it also happens to children and it happens to animals.”