NR | 1h 2m | Documentary | 2026
“This Ordinary Thing” is not theological, but it celebrates the notion of free will. It quotes Jan Karski (via David Strathairn’s narration), acknowledging that the soul, representing the “capacity to choose between evil and good,” governs only individuals, whereas a “collective soul,” encompassing governments or societies, does not exist.
In every occupied country, the National Socialists found plenty of collaborators who willingly aided and abetted their campaign of mass murder. Yet, there were tens of thousands who did the opposite.
Indeed, over 22,000 “Righteous Among the Nations,” individuals who are honored at Yad Vashem (Israel’s official Holocaust remembrance organization), for saving at least one life—and the subsequent lives that choice made possible. In retrospect, those who sheltered Jews clearly acted heroically, but they rarely considered themselves extraordinary despite the dangers they knowingly risked.
It simply struck them as the normal, obvious course of action. Filmmaker Nick Davis and an all-star voice cast bring to life the words and statements of dozens of such heroic everyday people.
Righteous Testimony
Davis assembles so much testimony from Righteous rescuers that many of his celebrity cast members must do double voice-over duties. The plentiful number of historical figures featured in “This Ordinary Thing” is in itself inspiring.
Perhaps the best-known figure is Irena Gut Opdyke (Helen Mirren), who was the subject of the Broadway play and subsequent film adaptation “Irena’s Vow.”
Opdyke’s well-documented story remains one of the most incredible cases of life-saving courage. Although born into a reasonably well-to-do family, the unmarried Gut lost her home to the occupying Germans and was forced to work in the villa of a senior Wehrmacht officer. It was there that she sheltered 12 Jewish countrymen, in the attic and basement—right under Major Rügemer’s nose.
While Gut suffered a painful reversal of fortune during the war, many of the figures represented in the film were just average working-class people, or hardscrabble rural laborers eking out a living from the land. For instance, Bill Camp nicely expresses the matter-of-fact sensibilities of Stefan Raczynski, a Lithuanian farmer. He later married Shoshanna Dzent (Jeannie Berlin), whom he had secretly sheltered.
There were Righteous among all classes, including the aristocratic Maria Countess Von Maltzan (Ellen Burstyn), who sadly lived her final declining years in poverty, receiving assistance from many of the Jews she helped save.
Perhaps Stephen Fry best conveys the Eastern European cadences of his assignments, Amfian Gerasimov and Mihael Mihaelov. Camp and Stephen Lang probably sound the most “in-character”; they gruffly narrate the testimony of Raczynski and Orest Zahajkewycz (and Antonin Kalina), respectively.
Every voice-over represents an incredible case study in courage. Some, like Gut and Alex Roslan (Jeremy Irons), largely tell their stories through Davis’s selected extracts. Roslan essentially adopted three Jewish brothers as his own sons along with his biological son and daughter.
Some, like Kalina, never have the full circumstances of their daily heroics established for viewers to appreciate. Kalina saved hundreds of Jewish children while imprisoned in a concentration camp for political crimes.
Packed With History
Davis and his famous narrators manage to shoehorn an awful lot of history into the film’s highly economical one-hour-and-change running time. At the same time, they vividly convey the constant tension endured by the sheltered Jews and their Righteous hosts.
For instance, Raczynski describes the incessant and invasive searches conducted by the local authorities, who rightly suspected that he was harboring Jews.
The words are dramatic and the voices are prestigious. Davis and executive producer Albert M. Tapper recruited a much-lauded voice cast, including five Academy Award winners: Burstyn, Irons, Mirren, F. Murray Abraham, and Marcia Gay Harden.
The collected ensemble also literally boasts dozens of Emmy and Tony nominations. However, Dame Helen Mirren’s audio presence might be the most timely and significant. Recent media reports tell of the verbal harassment she endured on the streets of London from a live-streaming, Palestinian-aligned extremist.
“This Ordinary Thing” is concise, classy, and educational, all three of which are considerable virtues. The evocative archival images accompanying the voice-overs are also aptly chosen.
Davis’s documentary most importantly celebrates those who chose to do the right thing. It delivers an urgently needed reminder that we are all individuals with free will, who are responsible for the moral repercussions of our own actions. Highly recommended.
“This Ordinary Thing” releases on digital VOD June 12th.
‘This Ordinary Thing’
Director: Nick Davis
Documentary
Not Rated
Running Time: 1 hour, 2 minutes
Release Date: June 12, 2026
Rated: 4 stars out of 5
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