Re-creating the wonders of Venice in their basement, a boy and his family find a magic-realist escape from World War II in this visually striking film. When 11-year-old Malek is sent to live with relatives after the outbreak of war in 1939, his aunt offers comfort from the harsh realities outside by constructing a water-logged underground fantasy land. Demonstrating the breadth of contemporary Polish cinema in its approaches to the past, Jan Jakub Kolski’s richly photographed and vividly inhabited film adapts the story by once-censored Polish author Wlodzimierz Odojewski.