Inspired by Faith, Holocaust Movie 'Irena's Vow' Delivers Must-See Message for Today

While there are many movies that are worth seeing there are others that must be seen. Not for entertainment value, or an escape from our pattern of everyday living, but due to the profound, life-changing messages that can make our lives better.

Irena’s Vow is one of those movies that must be seen.  Showing as a Fathom Movie event this week (April 15th and 16th) before heading to streaming video, Irena’s Vow tells the story of Irena Gut Opdyke, a Polish Catholic nurse, who, through extraordinary courage, risked her life to help hide Jews persecuted by Nazi Germany during World War II.

Starring Sophie Nelisse (47 Meters Down: Uncaged), Dougray Scott (Mission Impossible 2), and Andrezej Seweryn (Schindler’s List), the award-winning film is directed by Louise Archambault. 

Irena’s Vow was written by Dan Gordon (Passenger 57, The Hurricane), who also penned the Broadway play of the same name as well as the novelized version of the movie.

I recently sat down with Gordon to discuss why it took more than 25 years to get this movie made, how Irena’s childlike faith fueled every decision she made throughout her entire life, and why audiences should care about everything she stood for.

For every screenwriter, there always seems to be a trigger, a tipping point, a moment where you say to yourself, “I have to write this script!” For Irena’s Vow, what was that moment for you?

It was the first time I heard Irene speak. I was driving home from a business meeting in Los Angeles at the time. I heard her on a radio show called Religion on the Line that Dennis Prager used to host. He usually had clergymen on there as his guests. But this night the whole three hours was Irene. I pulled into my driveway and sat there for the next two hours or so, just enthralled. I couldn't break away from the radio. And the minute I heard it, I said, I need to write the movie about her life.

I realize there are a lot of ins and outs, ups and downs, and all arounds when trying to take a script from the written page to the big screen. But why did it take you 25 years to get this film made?

I think it took longer. I think it's 28 years, but it could even be longer than that. I think all movies are hard to get made. There is no movie that's easy to get made. Holocaust movies are the most difficult. There's nothing harder to get made than a Holocaust movie. And I came so close and so many times, and the industry is filled with such loathsome people along the way. There really were some terrible people who took advantage of Irene. One particularly loathsome individual, who I won't name, literally stole her rights, got her to sign a document, and stole her rights. So it was tied up in court for, for a while. And then there are just the people who say, ‘I've got the money and they don't.” So, you come close and it falls apart.

Thank goodness, seven years ago, the script made its way to Jeff Sackman and Barry Meyerowitz of Quiver Distribution, and they were as determined as me to get it made. And it took them seven years to put all the pieces together.

This movie of course is about Irena Gut Opdyke, a Polish Catholic nurse who demonstrated incredible courage and risked her life to help hide Jews being persecuted by the Nazis during World War II. I understand that you were very close with Irena. What can you tell me about the relationship you had together?

She became like a second mother to me. First of all, I admired her tremendously, but second of all, she was just a hoot to be with. She was just fun. She had a delightful sense of humor. She was never down. She was always looking on the bright side of things and optimistic. She was very, very wise.

My son, Zachy, died when he was 22-years-old in a traffic accident. And no one had a better future ahead of him than my son did. He graduated first in his class at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU (New York University). He was a published author at 19. He had directed his first feature film at 20.

I was as devastated as anyone can be. And one thing I've learned in life is that there are no words that you can say to someone who's lost a child that are of any comfort. And very well-meaning people said words that were just words as best they could.

And Irene was one of the first people to reach out to me and hugged me, looked me straight in the eyes and said, “You know, Haja, there is tragedy in life.” And it was like, boy, that's the wisest thing I ever heard. It's part of the deal. And none of us gets out clean. Some have bigger ones, some have lesser ones. After she had saved the 12 Jews in the basement, she hooked up with a partisan unit. She fell in love with a partisan leader. And that was the great love of her life. And on the day she was to be married to him, literally while she was putting on her wedding dress, she was informed that he was killed in an ambush by the Germans. So she knew tragedy in her bones and the marrow of her bones, and it was never an excuse for her to become embittered. It was never an excuse for her to stop trying to see the positive in people and in life. And it never challenged her faith. I don't believe after all she went through, she still certainly had difficult moments. Everybody does. But I don't believe her faith was ever challenged. Her faith was rock solid.

In the process of writing this screenplay, what did you discover about Irena’s faith?

I've only known one person in my life with what I would call perfect faith, which is not dogmatic. Irena’s faith was almost childlike in its purity, but at the same time was very, very mature. She simply had this very personal relationship with God. She had a gift of faith. And that was the thing that more than anything, enabled her to do what she did. It wasn't that Irene said, “Oh, I've got a good plan. I'll hide 12 Jews in the basement of a German (military) major. That's a great plan. When he hears a noise in the middle of night, I'll do this and I'll do that. She had no plan, but she had perfect faith that God would see her through this. That's always an inspiration.

While Irenas’ story is from another era, I believe that it conveys some very important lessons related to today based on what we are seeing in Israel. Could you share why audiences today should care about everything that she stood for?

We're living through a period of the most virulent growth of Jew hatred. I don't like the term antisemitism. It's too humanitarian. We're in the most virulent period of Jew hatred since Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Except it's not confined to Nazi Germany. It has found kindred spirits all over the world. And what people need to realize is Jews are the canary in the mind. This cancer starts with us, always starts with us. It's the one place where the far left and the far right always meet. They have a natural nexus. It's a fanatical hatred of the Jews, which I think is demonic, honestly. But it never ends with us. Look at the evils that were unleashed on the world by Adolf Hitler. The entire world paid a price that could have been nipped in the bud when they saw this fanatical genocidal hatred of one people and thought. It can be confined just to the Jews. It's not my business. You know, Winston Churchill once said, “It's the vain hope of being the last to be eaten in the room by the tiger.”

You have been showing Irena’s Vow at various film festivals and it has won or been nominated for several awards. What has the audience response been after seeing the film?

The audience's response to Irena's story is always stunning. I can tell you when we did the play off Broadway and on Broadway, there was not one night when we didn't have at least a three minute standing ovation and sometimes six, or eight minute standing ovations. And in every screening that I've seen of the movie, and I think I've now been to four of them, first you'll hear silence from the audience because they just sit there sort of going, “Wow.” And then there is thunderous applause. Audiences are moved by this story. They're inspired by the story. They're uplifted by this story. They're amazed by the story. If you ever wanted to see the hand of God at work in anything this is certainly something where you see that.

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