The Zookeeper

ZOOKEEPER, THE

THE ZOOKEEPER , Denmark/UK/Czech Rep./Netherlands,

2001, MPAA Rating : N/A

THE ZOOKEEPER is an unjustly overlooked film

about bitter regret and unexpected redemption

told in the starkest possible terms. Released in

2001, it features a towering performance by Sam

Neill in the title role as Ludovic, former

Communist party true believer now tending to the

municipal zoo in an unnamed war-torn eastern

European country suffering the anarchy following

the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of

the former Yugoslavia. The self-imposed solitude

of his life becomes more profound as city is

evacuated and he is left alone with the animals

and the eccentric vet (Om Puri) of unfortunate

ethnicity.

As the film begins, a tiger has died from the shock

of hearing bombs drop, and Ludovic has been

reduced to tears and anger by a letter from his

daughter in Paris. When the call to evacuate is

made, he volunteers to stay behind to feed the

animals and, if necessary, make the decisions

about which ones will be fed to the others when

the supplies run out. As with much else, it’s a

metaphor for what is happening around him, as

factions prey upon one another in the name of

taking care of the terrified survivors. That element

is brought home in the character of Dragov (Ulrich

Thomsen), the commander of a roving band of

soldiers whose subjugates Ludovic with a broad

smile and the sunny assurance that he is fighting

unnamed forces on his behalf.

Ludovic drinks, smiles, rages, and accepts what is

happening with indifference while writing in his

diary words of exquisite longing and love. The

audience discovers this, along with the last

remnants of Ludovic’s humanity when he takes in

Zioig (Javor Loznica), a child who barely survived

the murder of his father and the other men in his

village, and Zioig’s mother, Ankica (Gina McKee)

who survived the organized rapes and beatings

that the women suffered. Emotionally, both are

even more lost than Ludovic, setting up a

poignant situation that places Ludovic squarely

back into the midst of his fellow creatures.

Mckee and Loznica are heartbreakingly indelible,

she with a haunted desperation, Loznica with a

coldness that belies his tender years. Their

emotional shutdown cuts like a knife. Neill is just

as subtle, though with a role that allows him to

rage. In every choice he makes, there is a

deliberate sense of restraint, of not allowing his

character to give full reign to the depth of

emotion. The wariness of fear of what allowing

those feelings, tender or angry, full sway. It is a

caustic, unsentimental performance that does not

pander to the audience, but instead, forces it to

experience the weight of what Ludovic has felt

and let fester over the years, and to sympathize

with his inability to process it, or to reach out for

help. Neill never makes the expected move, and

he never disappoints.

The extras on the DVD include a behind the

scenes featurette. Co-writer Matthew Bishop

details his true-life inspiration for the story.

Director and co-writer Ralph Ziman discusses his

vision for bringing it to the screen and using it as

the opportunity to look into a person‘s soul. The

actors also check in, though it is the look at how

the animals, monkeys, elephants, wolves, and

both lions and tigers, are integrated into the film.

The training pays off in now the elephants truly do

seem to be talking to Neill, and the capuchin

monkey seems to have genuinely bonded with

him, chittering away like an old friend as she

scampers over and around him.

THE ZOOKEEPER is a haunting film, superbly

directed, and filmed with a harsh beauty of colors

as bleached as the emotions of the characters.

The quiet between explosions, military and

emotional, has a savage tension reflecting the

times in which it takes place.