--- title: "Irena's Vow" year: 2024 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/irenas-vow" fi1m_id: "irenas-vow" imdb_id: "tt19869662" tmdb_id: 1026880 wikidata_id: "Q121354043" fi1m_score: 64 critics_reviews: 3 published: "2026-09-24T10:11:12.232317+00:00" updated: "2026-09-24T10:11:49.525500+00:00" region: "KR" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Irena's Vow (2024) Directed by Louise Archambault · 2h 01m · War, Drama, History ## Identity Irena's Vow - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/irenas-vow - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** irenas-vow - **IMDb ID:** tt19869662 - **TMDB ID:** 1026880 - **Wikidata ID:** Q121354043 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19869662/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1026880, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q121354043 **Fi1m score: 64** · Critics: 3 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* Sophie Nélisse gives us someone to worry about whenever the history lesson threatens to take over > Sophie Nélisse gives this restrained wartime drama its urgency. Irena’s courage is affecting, but Louise Archambault’s film simplifies too much around her to make the history as troubling as it should be. ## Synopsis Irena Gut Opdyke (Sophie Nélisse) faces the demands of survival and the dangers of helping others under Nazism. Her story places individual courage against the violence of wartime, following a woman whose decisions carry consequences beyond her own safety. Rugmer (Dougray Scott), Schultz (Andrzej Seweryn) and Rokita (Maciej Nawrocki) figure in the drama around her. The other characters include Ida (Eliza Rycembel) and Lazar (Aleksandar Milićević). The focus remains on Irena and the difficulty of acting courageously when fear gives people reasons to do nothing. ## Review *Irena’s Vow* is worth considering for Sophie Nélisse, whose performance makes courage look difficult enough to matter. Louise Archambault directs a restrained wartime drama that keeps its attention on Irena Gut Opdyke rather than attempting a comprehensive account of Nazism. That is a sensible choice of scale, and sometimes a moving one. But the film’s straightforward treatment becomes a limitation: it gives us ample reason to respect Irena without making the people around her equally convincing. We recommend it cautiously, for the performance rather than the breadth of its understanding. Nélisse supplies the tension that the telling sometimes lacks. Her Irena never seems comfortably assured of her own bravery, and that uncertainty keeps the character from becoming merely an example held up for approval. We were moved by the strain in her performance, because helping others feels frightening rather than simply admirable. The distinction matters in a film whose central courage could otherwise be presented as something settled before the drama even begins. Nélisse gives us reason to keep watching the person making the decisions. Archambault’s restraint has value, too. There is no obligation for a historical drama to prove its seriousness by making suffering unbearable to watch, and a quieter approach can give an actor more room. The difficulty here is that the film’s tact too often softens what needs closer examination. Dan Gordon’s writing makes the moral stakes accessible, but the simplification leaves too little for us to discover about the people involved. Once their place in the story is clear, our understanding of them does not deepen enough. The supporting cast includes Dougray Scott as Rugmer, Andrzej Seweryn as Schultz and Maciej Nawrocki as Rokita. Yet the film remains so dependent on Nélisse that its broader human picture feels thin beside her. We do not need equal attention paid to every character; we need enough individuality to believe that their lives continue beyond their usefulness to Irena’s story. The same straightforwardness that keeps the drama legible also makes some of its encounters feel too readily understood. More uncertainty would have helped. Paul Sarossy’s cinematography and Arthur Tarnowski’s editing serve that restrained approach, though neither provides a compelling reason to reconsider the film’s tidy storytelling. Alexandra Stréliski’s music belongs to a production that is more persuasive when it allows feeling to emerge without pressing the point. The craft is competent, and the film is seldom difficult to follow. But clarity alone cannot supply the complications that Gordon’s writing leaves underexplored, particularly across a running time of 121 minutes. War dramas about individual courage have a difficult responsibility: they must make the individual matter without suggesting that bravery makes the surrounding history easier to comprehend. *Irena’s Vow* succeeds often enough at the first task to deserve a qualified recommendation. Its shortcomings are substantial, but they do not cancel the feeling Nélisse brings to Irena’s predicament. Choose it for that sustained attention to a frightened, courageous person, with the caveat that the historical drama around her is considerably less searching. *Fi1m score 64, published 24 September 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Irena's Vow worth watching?** *Irena's Vow* earns our cautious recommendation and a score of 64 for Sophie Nélisse’s affecting performance as a woman whose courage never comes easily. It suits viewers drawn to restrained wartime dramas about individual choices, though we find the supporting characters thin and the treatment of history too straightforward across its 121 minutes. **How long is Irena's Vow, and what is it rated?** *Irena's Vow* runs 2h 01m. It is a war and drama film. **Where can I watch Irena's Vow in South Korea?** *Irena's Vow* is not on any streaming or rental service in South Korea at the moment. It is available in 23 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is Irena's Vow, and is it suitable for children?** *Irena's Vow* has a US R certificate and no UK certificate supplied, so we would not recommend it for children. Its wartime setting involves violence, fear and the dangers of helping others under Nazism; we find the treatment restrained, but that does not establish how graphic individual moments are or make it a safe choice for younger viewers. **How does Irena's Vow compare to A Hidden Life?** *Irena's Vow* is the more straightforward drama, while we find [*A Hidden Life*](https://film.one/film/a-hidden-life) more affecting in its attention to the marriage endangered by a farmer’s resistance to Hitler. Both centre on courage maintained under pressure: choose the former for Sophie Nélisse’s performance, or the latter for its attention to a couple, with the caveat that it sometimes repeats its point. ### Reviews we read (3) - **Sight and Sound** (65/100, inferred): The critic finds the film somewhat oversimplified but believes Irena Gut’s brave story deserves to be told. They praise how Gut’s courage carries the film, while noting the restrained, straightforward approach to its storytelling. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/irenas-vow-extraordinary-story-wartime-heroism-plainly-told) - **The Guardian**, Cath Clarke (35/100, inferred): Clarke finds the drama too tactful and shallow to convey the full horror of Nazism, though she recognizes the extraordinary courage at its center. She singles out the forced viewing of a family’s execution as a particularly harrowing scene. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/mar/25/irenas-vow-review-the-extraordinary-tale-of-a-real-life-holocaust-rescuer) - **/Film**, Barry Levitt (9/10): The critic calls the film a special, inspiring story that finds a human perspective on familiar wartime history. They especially praise Sophie Nélisse’s tense, emotionally affecting performance as Irena. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1388840/irenas-vow-review-tiff-2023/) ## Details - **Director:** Louise Archambault - **Director:** Louise Archambault - **Writer:** Dan Gordon - **Cinematography:** Paul Sarossy - **Editor:** Arthur Tarnowski - **Music:** Alexandra Stréliski - **Costume design:** Małgorzata Zacharska - **Producer:** Beata Pisula, Nicholas Tabarrok, Tim Ringuette - **Cast:** Sophie Nélisse as Irena Gut Opdyke; Dougray Scott as Rugmer; Andrzej Seweryn as Schultz; Maciej Nawrocki as Rokita; Sharon Azrieli as Helen; Eliza Rycembel as Ida; Aleksandar Milićević as Lazar; Agata Turkot as Clara - **Runtime:** 2h 01m - **First release (Canada):** 10 September 2023 - **Genres:** War, Drama, History - **Box office:** $1 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjDOIiBpp2M ## Where to watch in South Korea Not streaming, renting or buying in South Korea at the last check. Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, IE, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Army of Shadows* (1969): Resistance work stripped of reassurance, with difficult choices given their proper weight. - *In Darkness* (2011): Another rescue drama, more attentive to the uncomfortable practicalities of helping. - *The Shop on the High Street* (1965): An intimate wartime story that refuses to make moral responsibility comfortable. - *The Counterfeiters* (2007): Survival and complicity examined through people who cannot afford clean choices. - *A Hidden Life* (2019), Fi1m 82: For another sustained performance about courage maintained under relentless external pressure. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/a-hidden-life.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/irenas-vow