Set in post-World War II Europe, Roberto Faenza's compelling film follows the path of Anita: a fifteen-year-old Hungarian orphan and Holocaust survivor sent to live in Czechoslovakia with her only living relative, Aunt Monika. Anita falls from the grasps of Auschwitz into the threshold of a different kind of imprisonment, as she is unable to leave her new home until her papers arrive. Stuck within the confines of her aunt's house, Anita's only serious companions are Robby, Monika's baby son, and Eli, the handsome and devilish younger brother of Monika's husband. As she falls into the rhythms of the home and a budding romance with Eli, her new life appears to be set until she encounters and befriends David—a young and sincere Jewish man with dreams of a new life in Jerusalem. Now, harboring a huge secret and once again faced with the difficult decision of leaving behind all she knows, Anita must take matters into her own hands as she forges her future.
Based on Edith Bruck's popular Italian autobiographical memoir, "Quanta Stella C'è Nel Cielo", the film expertly deals with the powerful and rarely depicted theme of post-Holocaust survivor's guilt. Anita, the sole survivor in her immediate family, constantly yearns to discuss her devastating past with anyone who will listen. However, her pleas fall on deaf ears. Neither Eli nor Monica, both survivors in their own right, wish to relive what happened; much to Anita's chagrin, they insist on moving forward and never addressing the past. Constantly reminded "surviving is one thing and living is another," Anita stumbles over the harrowing path of moving on, finding a confidante initially in baby Robby, and later in David.
This difficult tale could not be expressed without an unbelievable and complex group of characters and actors; luckily, Faenza has both. Up-and-coming actress Eline Powell captures the title character with an intensity and honesty that resonates with anyone watching. From teenage innocence to survivor's guilt, from demons of the past to dreams of the future, Powell thoroughly explores and represents all of Anita's binary oppositions. And yet, her performance is rivaled by that of co-actor Robert Sheehan. Playing both the friend and foe, Sheehan superbly depicts Eli in all of his complexity. He pushes the character past the flirty Casanova and evil seducer to reveal a tortured soul who cares about Anita in his own, twisted way. Andrea Osvart, playing the remorseful Monika, delivers a brilliant performance and leaves the audience feeling conflicted about her unsteady relationship with her niece. This refusal to identify any character as a villain or hero is perhaps the film's most compelling element; the individuals are simply people, dealing with an incomprehensible situation in the best way they can.
While Anita B. covers a dark and difficult subject, its beautiful cinematography and wide array of multifaceted characters nonetheless inspires hope. "I am traveling light from the past," the title character expresses. "My only baggage? The future."
