Review of the animated film "Where is Anne Frank" - a reimagining of the story of the infamous Jewish girl
Anne Frank once again teaches her descendants to remain human.
The image of the semi-mythical figure of the Holocaust victim slips from time to time onto our screens. Most recently, "My Friend Anne Frank" was released on Netflix, which looked at the life of the famous schoolgirl through the lens of her best friend. Now we have before us another side view, but this time a more unusual one - the imaginary friend from the diaries comes to the fore.
The Anne Frank Museum keeps the records of a thirteen-year-old girl who recorded on paper her hidden fears and experiences during World War II. One night, a red-haired girl named Kitty emerges from the pages of the diary, the very girl the Jewess addressed in her letters without an address. The newly revived young person knows nothing of the fate of the Frank family. Taking the precious notebook with her, she sets out in search of her only friend in modern Amsterdam.
The posthumously published Diary of Anne Frank transformed the teenager's personal experience into a flame of hope. The girl's name became a universal symbol that adorned the facades of all kinds of buildings: the Anne Frank School, the Anne Frank Museum, the Anne Frank Theater... you name it. Kitty, strolling through town, stops police officers and passersby, wanting to find out where the one who made her up is. To which the quirky girl in '40s clothing replies: "There she is - everywhere."
Director Ari Folman, however, is not so sure. The constructions dedicated to the girl are more enduring than the ideas embedded in the bitter lines. Anna's spirit slowly evaporates, and the essence of her words begins to fade. The author of the film, exploring the legacy of the young writer, reflects on the problem of the mistreatment of refugees today. As soon as she is on the street, Kitty meets Pyotr, a young boy who is a thief. He tries to provide for himself and help his migrant friends, who are about to be deported back to their homeland, where nothing awaits them. The parallel is not at all far-fetched, if we remember that Anna's family fled Germany to the Netherlands after Hitler came to power. Through the portrait of the imaginary girl, Vollmann seems to be asking the question, "What would Anna say?" The question does not sound like a reproach at all, but rather an attempt once again to rethink the tragedy of the last century, but now from a different perspective.
One should not think that the story unfolds solely in the contemporary realities of Kitty's journey. By flipping the viewer from one millennium to the next, the creators manage to run through the tragic chronicle of events and open the door of the Frank family's asylum. The animation turns the reconstruction of the historical period into a dystopian fairy tale (alas, not with a happy ending), where deliberately long black figures with swastikas force people to lock doors and hide in attics, and writing and fictional worlds save from feelings of hunger and exhaustion.
The festival animation becomes something of a postcard from the last century: the film looks not only for the girl named Anne Frank, but also for glimpses of light in a world where shadows will always fall. But as long as we are able to cast our eyes over history and not forget the victims, faith in transformation will not fade, and the schoolgirl with the spark in her eyes and sharp tongue will still remain a beacon for the fallen in spirit.
This article was sponsored by Charles Stapleton
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