As "My Best Friend Anne Frank" (2021 release from the Netherlands; 106 min.) opens, it is "1942 Amsterdam", and we are introduced to Hannah Goslar and Anne Frank, BFFs who are about 12-13 years old. As girls that age tend to do, they muse about boys, dreams, their parents. Except that of course they are Jewish, and Amsterdam is occupied by the Nazis. We then go to "1945 Bergen-Belsen Exchange Camp", and Hannah is there with her little sister Gabi, while Anne is close by, in the neighboring concentration camp. At this point we are 10 min into the film.
Couple of comments: this movie is the latest from Oscar nominated Dutch director Ben Sombogaart {"Twin Sisters"). Here he brings us the story of Hannah Goslar, Anne Frank's closest childhood friend. It should be emphasized that Anne Frank's role in the film is purely secondary, although we do learn some things about Anne along the way (for one, she was really mischievous). The movie goes back and forth between 1942 and 1945, and while we of course known the ultimate outcome (one girl doesn't survive), the 1945 scenes are by far the better. That said, I wondered why Hannah was put into the Exchange Camp (where each day a few were released and exchanged in return for a German POW), but Anne was not. The film never explains it. The best part of the 1942 scenes is to get a sense of what day-to-day life was like in Amsterdam under Nazi occupation. Beware: there are a number of scenes where the atrocities are laid bare and are frankly difficult to watch. The pure hatred and worse from the Nazis is something I'll never understand. In the end, this film is a worthwhile addition to the Anne Frank catalog of films out there.
"My Best Friend Anne Frank" premiered in the Netherlands last Fall, and started streaming on Netflix earlier this week. If you have any interest in the Holocaust, or WWII in general, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.
Couple of comments: this movie is the latest from Oscar nominated Dutch director Ben Sombogaart {"Twin Sisters"). Here he brings us the story of Hannah Goslar, Anne Frank's closest childhood friend. It should be emphasized that Anne Frank's role in the film is purely secondary, although we do learn some things about Anne along the way (for one, she was really mischievous). The movie goes back and forth between 1942 and 1945, and while we of course known the ultimate outcome (one girl doesn't survive), the 1945 scenes are by far the better. That said, I wondered why Hannah was put into the Exchange Camp (where each day a few were released and exchanged in return for a German POW), but Anne was not. The film never explains it. The best part of the 1942 scenes is to get a sense of what day-to-day life was like in Amsterdam under Nazi occupation. Beware: there are a number of scenes where the atrocities are laid bare and are frankly difficult to watch. The pure hatred and worse from the Nazis is something I'll never understand. In the end, this film is a worthwhile addition to the Anne Frank catalog of films out there.
"My Best Friend Anne Frank" premiered in the Netherlands last Fall, and started streaming on Netflix earlier this week. If you have any interest in the Holocaust, or WWII in general, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.