In her world-wide famous diary ,Anne Frank adressed to an imaginary friend she called Kitty ; in real life ,she had a true friend Hannah; the film depicts the deeply moving story of their friendship, which ,in spite of Anne's death ,survived ;"she's still my best friend " says Hannah,still alive in 2022 at 93.
Alternating scenes in occupied Netherlands and in the concentration camp ,the movie is never boring,as an user wrote .Although they came from well-to-do families ,chiefly Anne, they suffered the same humiliations as their coreligionists : the infamous yellow star (which was not the Nazi's invention:in the thirteenth century ,French king Louis IX aka Saint louis forced the Jews to wear the "rouelle "(a badge with a small wheel on it) ,the places forbidden to the Jews, the brutality and the contempt of the German soldiers ("it stinks over here") , the Jews were hardly allowed to breathe ;someone wrote that the movie was too nice : the way the Nazi officer treats the pregnant woman,nice? The propaganda movies telling the Dutch they were betrayed by their allies and deprived of their dairy products ? The soldiers forcing their way into the houses ,at any time of day or night?
And still, in this nightmarish world,hope against hope did survive ;Anna would dream of Hollywood , she would be famous ;A Florence Nightingale 's admirer ,Hannah wanted to be a nurse. In the end, both had their vow..
Anne Frank meant as much as her own family to Hannah ;when the former disappeared , she did believe that her friend had fled to Switzerland where she was skiing .This makes their brief reunion all the more poignant .Meeting your dearest friend in hell ,is there something worse?
Both actresses give restrained moving performance :Aiko Beemsterboer 's ressemblance between her and her character are striking ,much more than Millie Perkins' in George Stevens' version (1959)The rapport she has with her co-star Josephine Arendsen gives the movie its outstanding emotional strength.
