The Pianist (2002)


Adrien Brody            Wladyslaw Szpilman
Thomas Kretschmann      Captain Wilm Hosenfeld
Frank Finlay            The Father
Maureen Lipman          The Mother
Emilia Fox              Dorota
Ed Stoppard             Henryk
Julia Rayner            Regina
Jessica Kate Meyer      Halina
Ruth Platt              Janina
Michal Zebrowski        Jurek
Wanja Mues              SS Officer who slaps the father
Richard Ridings         Mr. Lipa

Directed by:            Roman Polanski
Produced by:            Lew Rywin, Timothy Burrill, Henning Molfenter


An adaptation based on the autobiography of the acclaimed Polish composer, Wladyslaw Szpilman, who detailed 
his survival during World War II, and narrowly escaped a roundup that sent his family to a death camp. A 
composer and pianist, Szpilman played the last live music heard over Polish radio airwaves before Nazi 
artillery hit. There, in Poland, Szpilman struggled to stay alive--even when cast away from those he loved. 
He spent the duration of the war hiding in the ruins of Warsaw and scavenging for food and shelter. Szpilman 
eventually reclaimed his artistic gifts, and confronted his fears--with aid from the unlikeliest of sources.

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A brilliant pianist, a Polish Jew, witnesses the restrictions Nazis place on Jews in the Polish capital, 
from restricted access to the building of the Warsaw ghetto. As his family is rounded up to be shipped off 
to the Nazi labor camps, he escapes deportation and eludes capture by living in the ruins of Warsaw.

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The true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman who, in the 1930s, was known as the most accomplished piano player in 
all of Poland, if not Europe. At the outbreak of the Second World War, however, Szpilman becomes subject to 
the anti-Jewish laws imposed by the conquering Germans. By the start of the 1940s, Szpilman has seen his 
world go from piano concert halls to the Jewish Ghetto of Warsaw and then must suffer the tragedy of his 
family deported to a German concentration camps, while Szpilman is conscripted into a forced German Labor 
Compound. At last deciding to escape, Szpilman goes into hiding as a Jewish refugee where he is witness to 
the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (April 19, 1943 - May 16, 1943) and the Warsaw Uprising (1 August to 2 October 1944)