After her Nazi parents are imprisoned, Lore leads her younger siblings across a war-torn Germany in 1945. Amidst the chaos, she encounters mysterious Jewish refugee Thomas, who shatters her fragile reality with hatred and desire. To live, she must trust someone she was taught to hate and face the darkness within herself.

Shortland and her British co-writer Robin Mukherjee have based their taut script with its spare dialogue on a 2001 Booker Prize nominated novel by Rachel Seiffert. It’s not really a novel: The Dark Room consists of three thematically linked novellas — Lore is the centrepiece — with the spotlight on post-war German awareness, guilt and responsibility.

In spring 1945, the German army collapses. As the Allied forces sweep across the Motherland, five children embark on a journey which will challenge every notion we have of family, love and friendship.