The Pianist

Władysław Szpilman is a 27-year-old concert pianist whose extraordinary talent has made him one of Poland’s most promising young musicians. While performing Chopin’s C minor Nocturne at a Warsaw radio station, the building is bombed by the Luftwaffe, marking the beginning of a devastating period that will completely change his life. Like other Jewish families, Szpilman and his loved ones are forced from their home and confined to the Warsaw Ghetto. As the war intensifies, Szpilman survives by playing the piano in bars frequented by black market dealers and collaborators. His fate takes another unexpected turn when he is separated from his family on a train bound for a concentration camp and is saved at the last moment. Hiding amid the ruins of a devastated Warsaw, Szpilman struggles to stay alive with the help of resistance fighters, a series of unlikely circumstances, and the unexpected compassion of a German officer.