: Set in post-WWII Brooklyn (1947), a young Southern writer named Stingo moves into a boarding house where he befriends Sophie Zawistowska, a Polish Catholic Holocaust survivor, and her volatile, brilliant lover Nathan Landau.
: The phrase "Sophie's choice" has entered the popular lexicon to describe a decision where every option results in a devastating loss.
The following features and key details define the 1982 film Sophie's Choice , a landmark of American cinema known for its intense emotional depth and Academy Award-winning performances:
: Directed and written by Alan J. Pakula , who adapted the 1979 novel by William Styron .
: Ebert described it as a "heartbreaking movie" about people struggling with the "bewilderment of being human in an age of madness".
: The narrative's central trauma is revealed through long flashbacks to Sophie's arrival at Auschwitz. A sadistic SS doctor forced her to choose which of her two children would be gassed immediately and which would be spared for labor.