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Eastern Europe circa 1995 - a city ravished civil war. Jonah Ludovic (Sam Neill) is a custodian at a small municipal zoo. He writes in a journal, poetry which softens the cynical observations of a man living in self imposed penance. Wherever he came from, whoever he was, Ludovic is now alone, silenced by a deed unknown As the story opens, the crisis in the city has escalated. The streets are owned by snipers, and the guns in the hills raining shells into the old city. People are fleeing with whatever belongings they can carry. After a night of heavy shelling Ludovic arrives at his job to find the staff abandoning the zoo. He joins a skeleton crew that includes an elderly guard and a veterinarian (Om Puri). Their purpose: to keep the animals alive until help arrives from an international zoological mission. Within days the guard disappears, the veterinarian is killed and Ludovic is left to the job alone. During a lull in the fighting a wounded ten year boy arrives at Ludovic's doorstep.