We see the spot where, before the war, Anne Frank used to go for ice cream.
Occupied Cityunfolds not as a chronological narrative, but in anecdotal or episodic form.
The documentary, fromA24andNew Regency, runs more than four hours, including an intermission.
‘Occupied City’A24/New Regency
But the volume of anecdotes serves the important purpose of illustrating the scale of the brutal occupation.
As the film points out, about 10 percent of Amsterdams pre-war population was Jewish.
Three-quarters of them, or about 60,000 people, did not survive World War II.
Director Steve McQueenCourtesy of James Stopforth
Occupied Cityalso suggests the limits of the liberation that followed Germanys defeat in 1945.
Liberation was for some, not necessarily for all.
