It's a Canadian-Polish World War II drama set in Radom, Poland, from 1939 to 1944. It follows a pious young Polish woman, Irena Gut (Sophie Nélisse), who is training as a nurse in 1939 when Germany invades Poland. She works in a factory for a time but catches the eye of Major Rugemer (Dougray Scott), the senior Wehrmacht officer in the area, because she has German physical features and speaks good German. First, she works in a hotel serving German officers and supervises some Polish workers, including some Jews. She then becomes Major Rugemer's housekeeper in a large villa where he lives and entertains.
Irena uses her position to hide twelve Jews with whom she had worked in the factory in a hidden part of the villa's basement. The film follows her process of hiding the Jews, the threats posed by SS Officer Rokita (Maciej Nawrocki), and the consequences when Major Rugemer finally discovers she is hiding Jews in his villa.
"Irena's Vow" tells an engaging story of a creative young woman negotiating complicated moral terrain. The script smooths out some realities and likely exploits and exaggerates some incidents. Nélisse and Scott are both very convincing in their characters, but the story does seem to drag a bit from time to time and some dialogue seemed canned. Perhaps it could have been 15-20 minutes shorter.
Irena uses her position to hide twelve Jews with whom she had worked in the factory in a hidden part of the villa's basement. The film follows her process of hiding the Jews, the threats posed by SS Officer Rokita (Maciej Nawrocki), and the consequences when Major Rugemer finally discovers she is hiding Jews in his villa.
"Irena's Vow" tells an engaging story of a creative young woman negotiating complicated moral terrain. The script smooths out some realities and likely exploits and exaggerates some incidents. Nélisse and Scott are both very convincing in their characters, but the story does seem to drag a bit from time to time and some dialogue seemed canned. Perhaps it could have been 15-20 minutes shorter.