The Pianist

Polish Jewish pianist Władysław Szpilman performs on Warsaw radio when German bombing begins. Occupation brings anti-Jewish laws, the Warsaw Ghetto, family deportation, forced labor, and years of hiding across the ruined city.

Adrien Brody reduces performance to listening, waiting, concealment, and bodily depletion. Piano music, ghetto walls, empty apartments, rationed food, distant uprising, and progressively devastated streets make survival contingent and lonely.