The screenplays for two new films that examine guilt, innocence, and survival under Nazi rule in Poland and Germany

Adapted from the acclaimed memoir and directed by Roman Polanski, The Pianist charts the extraordinary but true story of Poland's most promising young pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman, the only member of his family to survive the Nazi occupation. Through a bizarre chain of events and helped by family, friends, strangers, and even enemies, Szpilman meets the Marxist underground press, is sheltered by the proprietor of the café where he once performed, and, after the liberation, narrowly escapes death at the hands of his fellow survivors.

Taking Sides, which stars Harvey Keitel and Stellan Skarsgård (Breaking the Waves), depicts the post-war investigation of famed German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, who was suspected of having been a Nazi sympathizer. Was Furtwängler a criminal or a victim? Did he heroically uphold the principle that art is above politics or did he cravenly use his status as a shield to hide behind? At what point does neutrality become complicity and naïveté and cowardice no excuse for not opposing evil? Set in the American Zone of occupied Berlin in 1946, Taking Sides raises many questions, but ultimately the answers depend on which side you take.

With these two screenplays, Ronald Harwood reveals the shocking depths and the heartbreaking heights to which the human character can adhere in extreme conditions.