Still from the film A harrowing film about the Holocaust is hailed as an immersive "masterpiece", and has a 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The Pianist (2002) is a biographical film about the life of Polish-Jewish composer and Holocaust survivor W?adys?aw Szpilman (played by Adrien Brody). The film, based on Szpilman's memoir of the same name, depicts his family's attempts to survive as the Nazis took control of the Polish capital, Warsaw. Directed by Roman Polanski, whose parents were taken to German concentration camps where his mother died, it lays bare the horrific inhumanity of Adolf Hitler's regime. Article continues...