By John Corrado

Irena’s Vow dramatizes the inspiring true story of Irena Gut Opdyke (Sophie Nélisse), a Polish nurse who helped shelter a group of Jewish workers during World War II.

At a factory in occupied Poland, Irena is put in charge of supervising a group of Jewish workers in the laundry, who wash and repair uniforms for SS officers. Many of them are suspected of having exaggerated their tailoring abilities, but Irena finds kinship with them by revealing that she has also greatly embellished her qualifications.

Irena becomes friends with the workers, but gets transferred to a domestic position as a housekeeper for Nazi Commandant Major Rugemer (Dougray Scott). Rugemer uses his large house for entertaining, and is concerned with his status in society.

When Irena overhears an officer discussing plans to exterminate the Jewish workforce, she makes a plan to hide the workers in the basement of the commandant’s house. The film mostly unfolds at this house, built around the suspense of whether or not they will be discovered. This includes a sequence where she has the workers secretly help prepare food during a large dinner party, to prove that she can handle things on her own, and dissuade Rugemer from hiring a secondary helper who could rat them out.

The screenplay by Dan Gordon, adapting his own off-Broadway play for the screen, tells Irena’s story with understandable reverence. There are many moments showing how Irena is being guided by the strength of her own Catholic faith, and a personal vow to protect Jewish lives after witnessing a young Nazi soldier brutally execute an infant (one of the film’s most shocking moments).

Canadian filmmaker Louise Archambault (Gabrielle, And the Birds Rained Down) does a fine job of bringing this to the screen, letting her performers do a lot of the emotional heavy lifting. Nélisse, the former child actress who also starred in Monsieur Lazhar and WWII drama The Book Thief, brings an impressively understated quality to her portrayal of Irena, whose wide-eyed demeanour allows her to evade suspicion but also belies a steely resolve. Scott’s role as Rugemer becomes more nuanced as the film goes on, and the actor does an excellent job of handling these shifts.

The film doesn’t necessarily divulge from the majority of Holocaust movies, and its stage origins are sometimes felt (the passage of time also isn’t always made that clear). But it’s a poignant and moving story that is well-acted and well-told. The final moments showing how Irena’s actions ricocheted down through generations deliver the needed emotional impact, reminding us how her bravery and personal convictions allowed others to survive.

As a final note, it’s hard to understate the importance of a film like Irena’s Vow right now (including with the hostages still being held in Gaza that many seem to have willfully ignored or forgotten about), reminding us where antisemitism and anti-Jewish hatred has led in the past.

Film Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)

Irena’s Vow opens exclusively in theatres on April 19th. It’s being distributed in Canada by Elevation Pictures.