Irena's Vow

Irena Gut is a nineteen year old Polish nursing student. War comes and her country is occupied. She is forced to work at a factory. A German officer notices her and takes her into his house as a servant. Irena now works in a large house; the kitchen below, the officer's rooms above. She learns that the Jewish workers at the factory are to be sent to a camp. She hides twelve people in the cellar. The officer does not know. The house receives guests constantly and dinner is served every evening. Louise Archambault directs; Dan Gordon wrote the screenplay. Sophie Nélisse plays Irena and Dougray Scott the officer; Andrzej Seweryn is in the cast. The events are real; Irena Gut Opdyke hid a group of Jews during the war and later gave her testimony. Gordon had written the same story earlier as a stage play and the screenplay rests on that text. Irena Gut settled in America after the war; she told nobody for years and began speaking only in her old age. The matter it treats is how much one person can put at risk; Irena's options narrow in every scene. Its hardest section is a decision about a pregnancy and the narrative does not soften it. It was shot in Poland and the period design is detailed. Its limit is structure; the narrative proceeds close to a shape and the officer is not opened enough. Who it is for: viewers who like true stories of the war years. Who it is not for: the subject is heavy, the narrative conventional, and the emotional steering high.