| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Carice van Houten | ... | Rachel Stein / Ellis de Vries | |
| Sebastian Koch | ... | Ludwig Müntze | |
| Thom Hoffman | ... | Hans Akkermans | |
| Halina Reijn | ... | Ronnie | |
| Waldemar Kobus | ... | Günther Franken | |
| Derek de Lint | ... | Gerben Kuipers | |
| Christian Berkel | ... | Gen. Käutner | |
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Dolf de Vries | ... | Wim Smaal - Notary |
| Peter Blok | ... | Van Gein | |
| Michiel Huisman | ... | Rob | |
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Ronald Armbrust | ... | Tim Kuipers |
| Frank Lammers | ... | Kees | |
| Matthias Schoenaerts | ... | Joop | |
| Johnny de Mol | ... | Theo | |
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Xander Straat | ... | Maarten |
Israel 1956. Rachel, a Jew, rather unexpectedly meets an old friend at the kibbutz where she is working as a teacher. It brings back memories of her experiences in The Netherlands during the war, memories of betrayal. September 1944. Rachel is in trouble when her hiding place is bombed by allied troops. She gets in contact with a man from the resistance and joins a group of Jews who are to be smuggled across the Biesbosch by boat to the freed South Netherlands. Germans from a patrol boat murder them all however. Only Rachel is able to escape. She is rescued by a resistance group under the leadership of Gerben Kuipers. When Kuipers' son is captured after trying to smuggle weapons, he asks Rachel to seduce SS-hauptsturmführer Ludwig Müntze. Soon she will find out the attack in the Biesbosch wasn't a coincidence. Written by Arnoud Tiele (imdb@tiele.nl)
It took me about an hour after having seen the film to find any enthusiasm to write this review. The film Black Book, or Zwartboek in Dutch, is very impressive, with an excellent feeling for the complexity of inter-human relationships.
The story is about a Jewish girl that finds herself in a powerless situation in a war that tends to bring out the worst in all, 'good' or 'bad'. So much for what we know without seeing the film for ourselves. The film starts out rather typical, informing us with what we already new about the war: people where poor, hungry and trying to survive. However, the second part of the film shows a less well known part of Dutch resistance history: that the war brings out the worst in everybody. Without losing sight of the importance of the resistance against the foreign repression, Paul Verhoeven confuses his audience by visualizing how ones own well-being seems to go at the cost of the well-being of another. No black and white, no bad or good, but only the individual choice, that is tormented by the will to survive and a feeling for morality.
The film is daring for showing the dark side of the Dutch national history. However, the most valuable of the film is that it captivates its audience and sensitizes its audience for the misery of the historical event of World War II, but also the contemporary difficulties that affects human beings rather than countries. A must see, even though it makes you feel miserable.