This short film consists of interviews (almost all in English) of various former Dutch resistance fighters and various Dutch Jews who suffered terribly during the Second World War. The stories told in these interviews are compelling and quite moving. Part of the success of this documentary is in finding the right people to tell their stories.
Interspersed with the interviews are various evocative film montages, lyrical passages on appropriate themes, and orienting short narrative descriptions of various events during the war and aspects of the war.
This was not a sensationalist account or a dry history. Evans succeeds in bringing the heroism, suffering and sacrifice to life by having us listen to the very people who were involved in it. Everyone who watches this will be more sympathetic to what the Dutch went through during the war and have a better understanding of it.
Given the time constraints, this film understandably did not deal with the subject in great detail, especially with regard to the more difficult aspects. These were sidestepped. Nor did the film have earthshaking new insights. For Dutch people, this will be a sympathetic retelling of a familiar story.
The overall objectives were to generate pathos and to introduce an old subject to a new audience. I'd say it succeeded in this admirably. I came away from the film with a sense of sadness and loss.
The Dutch are portrayed positively, I thought, but I appreciated the few lines that were included to warn the reader away from making generalisations or assumptions. It was not all black and white.
Interspersed with the interviews are various evocative film montages, lyrical passages on appropriate themes, and orienting short narrative descriptions of various events during the war and aspects of the war.
This was not a sensationalist account or a dry history. Evans succeeds in bringing the heroism, suffering and sacrifice to life by having us listen to the very people who were involved in it. Everyone who watches this will be more sympathetic to what the Dutch went through during the war and have a better understanding of it.
Given the time constraints, this film understandably did not deal with the subject in great detail, especially with regard to the more difficult aspects. These were sidestepped. Nor did the film have earthshaking new insights. For Dutch people, this will be a sympathetic retelling of a familiar story.
The overall objectives were to generate pathos and to introduce an old subject to a new audience. I'd say it succeeded in this admirably. I came away from the film with a sense of sadness and loss.
The Dutch are portrayed positively, I thought, but I appreciated the few lines that were included to warn the reader away from making generalisations or assumptions. It was not all black and white.
