Lviv movie runner-up at Oscars

A movie set in wartime Lviv lost out to Iranian film A Separation at the 84th Academy Awards on 26th February. In Darkness, by Polish director Agnieszka Holland, tells the real life story of Leopold Socha, a petty criminal who saved a group of Jews from the Nazis by hiding them in the city's sewers.

We were a little unlucky that such a good movie as A Separation was our competitor, Holland told journalists at a press conference following the award ceremony.

I had thought for a long time that we might lose to this very good movie, she said.

It's nothing to be ashamed of, Holland added.

Asghar Farhadi is a very talented artist, and his film says something very profound about the human situation today, which the academy has appreciated.

A Separation explores the dilemma faced by an Iranian couple over whether to allow their daughter to emigrate.

Meanwhile, although Holland's movie is set in Lviv, evil-eyed viewers may spot that major city landmarks are absent in the film. In fact, Holland recreated Lviv's streets in a variety of Polish provincial towns, and did not shoot any of the movie in Lviv itself.

Prior to war, Lviv lay within Polish borders, and the city was a melting pot of Poles, Ukrainians, Jews, Armenians and Germans.