The distinguished indie filmmaker Henry Jaglom (“A Safe Place,” “Festival in Cannes”) has, in recent years, also made his mark as a playwright. Working out of his home base, the Edgemar Center, he has put together a small pool of actors, led by his wife Tanna Frederick, who have worked together as a team to breathe life into numerous plays of his, the latest of which is Train to Zakopane. Based on true events that occurred in the life of his father, Jaglom’s drama is set in 1920's Poland, where Semyon Sapir, a successful and debonair Russian businessman (Mike Falkow), travels by train to Warsaw. In a compartment, he meets three other passengers, a priest (Stephen Howard), a former actress (Cathy Arden), and a beautiful young army nurse, Katia (Frederick). Semyon and Katia are attracted to each other, but the attraction is an immensely complicated one.
To go into detail about these complications would be to give away too much of the story; suffice to say that its key ingredient is Katia’s generic hatred of Jews. This, of course, creates a huge problem for Semyon, who has hidden his Jewish origins from her. A part of him despises her; another part feels love for her. Katia is just as conflicted we learn as things unfold; there is a valid reason for the way she feels about Jews. The reason doesn’t excuse her hatred, but it does make her a three-dimensional character, not just a villain. As for Semyon, he has demons of his own, demons that power a need for revenge.
Train to Zakopane is many things: a tragic love story, a portrait of Europe on the verge of apocalypse (the Nazis are a looming off-stage presence), a meditation on the mysteries of the human heart. Jaglom dramatizes these themes skillfully, and his actors, working on Chris Stone’s complex but evocative set, deliver sharply etched, deeply felt performances.
