The Zookeeper is an independent 2001 drama film directed by Ralph Ziman and starring Sam Neill, Gina McKee, and Ulrich Thomsen.
While being transported in a truck, Zioig's father (Mikulás Kren) tells his son that he is a man now and that grown men don't cry.
Meanwhile in the capital city, a former Interior Ministry official and Communist party member named Ludovic (Sam Neill) works at a zoo.
With the city under siege, Ludovic volunteers to help the Indian veterinarian (Om Puri) to look after the animals until they can safely evacuate them.
Back in the capital city, Ludovic encounters the militia leader Dragov (Ulrich Thomsen) at a checkpoint.
After a blood-stained Zioig returns with cigarettes taken from a man he purportedly found dead, Ankica confides in Ludovic that she is losing touch with her son.
When Dragov and his militia return to seize the zoo’s domestic animals for food, Ludovic hides Ankica inside a barn.
While Dragov and one of his men Slavko (Srdjan Simeonovich) search the barn, Ludovic distracts them by giving them a lion cub as a mascot.
The Zookeeper was filmed at several locations in the Czech Republic including Brandýs nad Labem-Stará Boleslav, Doksany, Milovice, and Prague.
[1] The Variety reviewer Robert Koehler praised Ralph Ziman and Matthew Bishop's for exploring Sam Neill's character Ludovic.
Koehler also praised Neill's portrayal of Ludvoic, whom he described as a "man who has emotionally shut down but can’t stop the world from marching back in."
Despite commending Piotr Kukla's lensing and Ziman's juxtaposition of explosions in the zoo scenes, Koehler criticized Nikolaj Egelund's score as a poor imitation of Lisa Gerrard's signature vocal music.