Imagine being a little girl, barely old enough for school, clutching a handmade green sweater as your only comfort while rats scurry past your feet in pitch-black tunnels reeking of waste. For 14 agonizing months, that’s exactly how Krystyna Chiger survived the Holocaust – hidden deep in the filthy sewers of Lvov, Poland, with her family and a handful of desperate Jews. Netflix has just resurrected this gut-wrenching true story in Agnieszka Holland’s Oscar-nominated masterpiece In Darkness, a film so raw and unflinching it left audiences worldwide stunned, sobbing, and forever changed. Dropped quietly onto the platform amid a wave of WWII dramas, this hidden gem is exploding in views – and once you hit play, you’ll understand why millions can’t look away.

The year is 1943. Nazi forces have turned Lvov into a death trap for its 150,000 Jews. Ghettos are liquidated, families torn apart, trains rumbling toward Auschwitz. But one man – Leopold Socha, a rough-around-the-edges Polish sewer worker and petty thief – stumbles upon a group fleeing underground. At first, he sees dollar signs: hide them for cash, easy money from desperate souls. What starts as a cynical scam transforms into one of the war’s most astonishing acts of heroism. Socha risks everything – his job, his freedom, his life – to smuggle food, supplies, and hope into the bowels of the city.

At the heart of it all is little Krystyna, just 7 years old when her world collapses. Her father, Ignacy Chiger, a clever engineer, digs secret entrances with spoons and forks. Her mother clings to sanity amid the horror. And Krystyna? She becomes the story’s beating heart – a wide-eyed child navigating unimaginable darkness with innocent games, whispered prayers, and that beloved green sweater knitted by her grandmother. “It was my treasure,” Krystyna later recalled in her memoir The Girl in the Green Sweater. “In the cold, wet sewers, it kept me warm… and reminded me of home.”

Director Agnieszka Holland (Europa Europa) doesn’t sugarcoat a thing. Filmed in claustrophobic real-time dread, In Darkness plunges you into the slime: flooding tunnels that drown the weak, betrayals born of starvation, births and deaths in utter filth. Rats feast on corpses. Relationships fracture under pressure – affairs ignite, fights erupt, faith crumbles. Yet amid the depravity, humanity flickers. Socha, played with gritty brilliance by Robert Więckiewicz, evolves from opportunist to savior. “I was a thief,” he confesses. “But God gave me this chance.”

The real Krystyna’s tale is even more miraculous. Born in 1935 to a prosperous Jewish family, she lived like a princess until the Nazis invaded. Yellow stars, ghettos, roundups – her childhood shattered overnight. As the final liquidation loomed, Ignacy led 21 souls into the sewers. Only 10 emerged when Soviet troops liberated Lvov in 1944. Krystyna, her parents, and brother Pawel were among them – thanks to Socha and his crew, who defied death daily.

Holland’s film, based on Robert Marshall’s book In the Sewers of Lvov and inspired by Krystyna’s own words, earned a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nod in 2012. Critics raved: “A thrilling adventure picture – as if Anne Frank met Inglourious Basterds” (NPR). “Harrowing… speaks to humankind’s capacity to endure” (Boston Globe). But it’s the child’s perspective that hits hardest. Young actress Maria Schrader captures Krystyna’s terror and wonder – reciting prayers in the dark, befriending rats, celebrating a makeshift birthday with stolen candy.

Why is In Darkness blowing up on Netflix now, in 2025? In a world grappling with rising hate, this story screams relevance. Socha wasn’t a saint – he was flawed, prejudiced, profit-driven. Yet he chose decency. “We are all capable of good,” Holland says. “Even in darkness.” The film shatters myths: not all Poles were heroes, not all Jews passive victims. Infighting, selfishness, survival instincts – it’s messy, real, human.

Krystyna, the last sewer survivor, lived to tell it. She moved to America, married, raised a family. Her green sweater? Donated to the Holocaust Museum, a symbol of resilience. “I was a little girl in a big hell,” she wrote. “But we survived because of love – and one man’s change of heart.”

Clocking in at 143 minutes, In Darkness isn’t easy viewing. Subtitles fly (Polish, German, Yiddish), violence brutalizes, despair suffocates. But the payoff? Cathartic triumph as survivors emerge blinking into sunlight, Socha hailed a hero (posthumously named Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem).

Netflix dropping this powerhouse is a gift – or a wake-up call. Stream it tonight, but brace yourself: you’ll laugh (yes, dark humor amid horror), cry (buckets), and rage at humanity’s depths… then soar at its heights.

Forgotten for years, In Darkness is finally getting its moment. Millions speechless? Absolutely. One viewer tweeted: “Watched with my teens – we sat silent for an hour after. This is why we remember.”

In a sewer’s slime, a 7-year-old girl found light. Her story? Unbreakable. Hit play on Netflix – if you dare. You won’t emerge unchanged.