“In Darkness,” Poland's pick for best foreign language film at this year's Oscar ceremony, made its international debut at the Toronto International Film Festival last week.

Director Agnieszka Holland's most recent film depicts the story of Leopold Socha, a Polish sewer worker played by actor Robert Więckiewicz, who helps a group of Jewish people hide in the sewers of Lvov, Ukraine, during World War Two, risking his life in the process.

Based on Robert Marshall's book “In the Sewers of Lvov,” Ms Holland's movie aims to paint as realistic a portrait of the grim period as possible.

The film was shot in six languages, and largely takes place in almost complete darkness. The director also aims at painting a more complex picture of individuals than many films that depict the same period – unlike several other Holocaust movies, the characters of “In Darkness” are morally ambiguous. The main character, for instance, starts as a mildly anti-Semitic crook who agrees to help Jews in exchange for money, and only later starts sympathizing with them.

“I was interested in showing how thin the line is between good and evil and how easy it is to step over into evil,” Ms Holland recently told The Hollywood Reporter.

“Ms Holland's brave epic could not be farther from conventional entertainment; the suspense here, derived from a true story, is excruciating and inspiring in equal measure,” wrote a critic for the Wall Street Journal. “The hero ... brings Oskar Schindler to mind because he's a Gentile who decides to save Jewish lives. Otherwise, Soha's story is singular and superbly dramatic, the evolution of an obtuse anti-Semite into a guardian angel.”

The Polish, German and Canadian production is Ms Holland's third feature film on the Holocaust. Born in Warsaw to a Jewish father and a Catholic mother, Ms Holland has strong personal connections to this dark part of European history.

“In Darkness” is set to be released in Polish cinemas in January 2012.

This is Agnieszka Holland's thirds Academy Award nomination. She was nominated for "Bitter Harvest," which received an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film in 1986, for "Bitter Harvest," and for a screenwriting Oscar in 1992 for "Europa Europa." More recently, Ms Holland has worked in the US, directing cable series such as “The Wire,” “Treme,” and “The Killing.”

See a retrospective of her carrier (in Polish, with English subtitles) here: