Where Is Anne Frank

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Where Is Anne Frank
Where Is Anne Frank.jpg
French theatrical release poster
Directed by Ari Folman
Screenplay byAri Folman
Based on The Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyTristan Oliver
Edited byNili Feller
Music by
Production
companies
  • Purple Whale Films
  • Walking the Dog
  • Samsa Film
  • Bridgit Folman Film Gang
  • Submarine Amsterdam
  • Le Pacte
  • Doghouse Films
  • Magellan Films
Distributed by
  • Le Pacte (France)
  • Cinéart (Belgium and Netherlands) [1]
Release dates
  • 9 July 2021 (2021-07-09)(Cannes)
  • 8 December 2021 (2021-12-08)(France)
  • 15 December 2021 (2021-12-15)(Belgium)
  • 16 March 2022 (2022-03-16)(Luxembourg)
  • 31 March 2022 (2022-03-31)(Netherlands)
Running time
99 minutes [1]
Countries
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20 million [4]
Box office$752,750

Where Is Anne Frank is a 2021 animated magic realism [5] film directed by Israeli director Ari Folman. [6] [7] The film follows Kitty, Anne Frank's imaginary friend to whom she addressed her diary, manifesting in contemporary Amsterdam. Seeking to learn what happened to her creator, Kitty attracts worldwide attention and interacts with undocumented immigrants. [8]

Contents

Where Is Anne Frank was shown out of competition at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival on 9 July 2021. [9] [10] It was released in France on 8 December 2021 by Le Pacte, on 15 December 2021 in Belgium by Cinéart, on 16 March 2022 in Luxembourg, and on 30 March 2022 in the Netherlands.

Plot

"A year from now" in Amsterdam, the glass casing over the first volume of Anne Frank's diaries in the Anne Frank House shatters. As ink from a fountain pen drips onto the pages, the words lift off and manifest into Kitty, a 14-year-old [11] red-haired girl dressed in 1940s clothes who was Anne's imaginary friend while writing her diary. Confused by the absence of Anne and her family, Kitty discovers she is invisible and intangible to people while inside the Anne Frank House as she sees civilians tour the museum. Flashbacks to Anne writing her diary in the 1940s show how Kitty remembers the recorded events as if Anne spoke to her while writing.

After dark, two drunk men smash Anne's bedroom window with rocks after seeing Kitty turn on a light, drawing the police's attention and scaring her into fleeing with the diary. Not knowing what happened to the Franks and the time since World War II, Kitty tries to file a missing person report at the police station for Anne. Bemused, the police point her to several places in Amsterdam named after Anne Frank before trying to arrest her when they learn Kitty has Anne's diary. Kitty escapes and meets a boy named Peter, whom she saw stealing wallets in the Anne Frank House yesterday, initially mistaking him for Anne's boyfriend. While skating with him, Kitty discovers how straying too far from the diary will dissolve her into ink. Peter takes her back to the Anne Frank House in the morning after Kitty nearly dies from separation from Anne's diary. After Kitty spends the day sleeping, Peter comes looking for her the next morning, leading the police to seize him for disruption. Knowing him for a pickpocket, they interrogate him about Kitty, but refuse to believe his account about her magical status.

At night, Peter returns to the Anne Frank House, explaining how he's learned how Kitty's powers work. She exits to meet him, drawing the attention of the police and forcing them both to flee again. Kitty trades one of Auguste van Daan's stashed high-price watches for modern clothes and visits the 6th Montessori School Anne Frank's library to catch up on history. After reviewing several different editions of Anne's diary, Kitty learns about Anne's death from the librarian, who gives her Otto Frank's book before she goes to the play about Anne. When she criticizes the actors for misquoting Anne, the audience recognizes her from the news and swarms her. Kitty escapes and meets up with Peter, who takes her to a shelter where refugees live. Awa, a little girl, explains their plight and shows Kitty how her father plans to build a hot air balloon for them to escape.

Kitty confronts Peter about not explaining that Anne and most of her family died. Determined to retrace Anne's footsteps, Kitty and Peter travel by train to Westerbork, Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belsen. Kitty reads Otto's memoir and watches Hanneli Goslar's recordings, becoming more depressed. Upon arriving at Anne and Margot's cenotaph in Bergen-Belsen, a devastated Kitty collapses while sobbing before Peter convinces her to return to Amsterdam with him. When they return to the shelter, they discover the government has scheduled to deport the refugees back to their homelands tomorrow. With her new experiences, Kitty becomes empowered to help them, spray-painting Awa's father's hot air balloon to reveal her location to the world.

With a crowd gathered the next day, Kitty makes an emotional speech, accusing the world of deifying Anne and mishandling her message of helping and saving people. She threatens to burn Anne's diary unless the government agrees to shelter the refugees. Seeing Kitty afraid of what could happen, Peter offers to take her back to the Anne Frank House to live as an immortal, invisible spirit. Despite her fear of death, she declines, as they have fallen in love. After a short deliberation, the officials and police accept Kitty's terms. She hands the diary to Awa, who delivers it to the authorities as Kitty leaves with Peter. After separating from Anne's diary for three hours, Kitty shares a passionate kiss with a distraught Peter before dissolving into ink and dispersing into the wind.

Cast

Production

Where Is Anne Frank was an initiative of the Anne Frank Fonds developed in partnership with UNESCO, the Claims Conference, the Foundation of the Memory of the Shoah, and various other organizations. [8] The producers originally planned to shoot the movie entirely in stop motion, with the characters to be later replaced in traditional 2D animation. [12] However, they ultimately used 2D animation for most of the film and used stop-motion sets for the background in some scenes. [13]

Before the film was released, Folman and David Polonsky published a graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank's Diary which used the same style of drawing seen in the film. [14] The film itself was also adapted into a graphic novel by Folman with illustrations by Lena Guberman. [15]

Reception

Where Is Anne Frank has garnered an 80% approval rating and an average rating of 6.90/10 on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews from 50 critics. The site's critical consensus reads, "Where Is Anne Frank approaches a well-known story from a fresh angle while powerfully placing it in the context of the horrific tragedy that surrounds it." [16] Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 56 out of 100 based on five critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [17]

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote, "The story of Anne Frank and her diary is retold in this fervent, heartfelt and visually wonderful animated film." [10] Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter said the film "expresses the story's unspeakable sadness with eloquence and sensitivity." [18] Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood called it "a complete Anne Frank story reinvention that should resonate in the hearts of the young audience at which it is aimed". [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otto Frank</span> Father of Anne Frank (1889–1980)

Otto Heinrich Frank was the father of Anne Frank. He edited and published the first edition of her diary in 1947 and advised on its later theatrical and cinematic adaptations. In the 1950s and the 1960s, he established European charities in his daughter's name and founded the trust which preserved his family's wartime hiding place, the Anne Frank House, in Amsterdam.

<i>The Diary of Anne Frank</i> (1959 film) 1959 American film directed by George Stevens

The Diary of Anne Frank is a 1959 American biographical drama film based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1955 play of the same name, which was in turn based on the posthumously published diary of Anne Frank, a German-born Jewish girl who lived in hiding in Amsterdam with her family during World War II. It was directed by George Stevens, a Hollywood filmmaker previously involved with capturing evidence of concentration camps during the war, with a screenplay by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. It is the first film version of both the play and the original story, and features three members of the original Broadway cast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miep Gies</span> Dutch citizen who hid Anne Frank (1909–2010)

Hermine "Miep" Gies was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank, her family and four other Dutch Jews from the Nazis in an annex above Otto Frank's business premises during World War II. She was Austrian by birth, but in 1920, at the age of eleven, she was taken in as a foster child by a Dutch family in Leiden to whom she became very attached. Although she was only supposed to stay for six months, this stay was extended to one year because of frail health, after which Gies chose to remain with them, living the rest of her life in the Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Frank</span> Jewish diarist and Holocaust victim (1929–1945)

Annelies Marie Frank was a German-born Jewish girl who kept a diary documenting her life in hiding amid Nazi persecution during the German occupation of the Netherlands. A celebrated diarist, Frank described everyday life from her family's hiding place in an Amsterdam attic. She gained fame posthumously and became one of the most-discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust with the 1947 publication of The Diary of a Young Girl, which documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944. It is one of the world's best-known books and has been the basis for several plays and films.

<i>The Diary of a Young Girl</i> Diary by Anne Frank

The Diary of a Young Girl, commonly referred to as The Diary of Anne Frank, is a book of the writings from the Dutch-language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was apprehended in 1944, and Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. Anne's diaries were retrieved by Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl. Miep gave them to Anne's father, Otto Frank, the family's only survivor, just after the Second World War was over.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margot Frank</span> Older sister of Anne Frank and Holocaust victim (1926–1945)

Margot Betti Frank was the elder daughter of Otto Frank and Edith Frank and the elder sister of Anne Frank. Margot's deportation order from the Gestapo hastened the Frank family into hiding. According to the diary of her younger sister, Anne, Margot kept a diary of her own, but no trace of it has ever been found. She died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from a typhus outbreak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith Frank</span> Mother of Anne Frank (1900–1945)

Edith Frank was the mother of Holocaust diarist Anne Frank and her older sister Margot. After the family were discovered in hiding in Amsterdam during the German occupation, she was transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

<i>The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank</i> 1988 television film

The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank is a 1988 television film directed by John Erman. It is based on Miep Gies's 1988 book Anne Frank Remembered. The film was broadcast as part of an ad hoc network, Kraft Golden Showcase Network. Playwright William Hanley received an Emmy for his script. The film premiered on CBS on April 17, 1988.

The Diary of Anne Frank is a BBC adaptation, in association with France 2, of The Diary of a Young Girl originally written by Anne Frank from 1942 to 1944 and adapted for television by Deborah Moggach.

<i>Waltz with Bashir</i> 2008 Israeli adult animated war docudrama film by Ari Folman

Waltz with Bashir is a 2008 Israeli adult animated war docudrama film written, produced, and directed by Ari Folman. It depicts Folman's search for lost memories of his experience as a soldier during the 1982 Lebanon War and the Sabra and Shatila massacre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ari Folman</span> Israeli film director

Ari Folman is an Israeli film director, screenwriter, animator, and film-score composer. He directed the Oscar-nominated animated documentary film Waltz with Bashir (2008) and the live-action/animated film The Congress. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yoni Goodman</span> Israeli animator (born 1976)

Yoni Goodman is an Israeli animator.

Femke Wolting is a Dutch independent new media producer.

<i>The Diary of Anne Frank</i> (opera)

The Diary of Anne Frank is a monodrama in 21 scenes for soprano and chamber orchestra, composed in 1968 and first performed in 1972. The music and libretto are by Grigory Frid, after the eponymous 1942–1944 diary.

The Diary of Anne Frank is a 1967 TV film based on the posthumously published 1947 book The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. The teleplay was directed by Alex Segal and it was adapted by James Lee from the 1955 play of the same name by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich. The film starred Max von Sydow, Diana Davila, Peter Beiger, Theodore Bikel and Lilli Palmer.

<i>The Congress</i> (2013 film) 2013 film by Ari Folman

The Congress is a 2013 English-language French live-action/animated science-fiction drama film written and directed by Ari Folman, based on Stanisław Lem's 1971 Polish science-fiction novel The Futurological Congress. It stars Robin Wright as a fictionalized version of herself who agrees to have a film studio use a digital clone of her in any film they want. The Congress then flashes forward twenty years later to her travels in the studio's animated utopia world, where anyone can become an avatar of themselves, but are required to use hallucinogenic drugs to enter a mutable illusory state. The Congress premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival on 15 May 2013. Independent film distributor Drafthouse Films announced, along with Films We Like In Toronto, their co-acquisition of the North American rights to the film and a US theatrical and VOD/digital release planned for 2014.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl is an original radio play by author Meyer Levin (1905–1981). It was adapted from Levin's original stage dramatization of the same name, adapted from The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank's 1942-1944 diary that was posthumously published in 1947. It aired on CBS on September 18, 1952, the eve of Rosh Hashanah, to critical acclaim, and again in November 1952.

<i>Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank</i> 2016 German film

Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank is a 2016 German drama film directed by German filmmaker Hans Steinbichler and written by Fred Breinersdorfer. It stars Lea van Acken as the titular character, Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Noethen, and Stella Kunkat. The film is based on Anne Frank's famous diary and tells the story of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl who went into hiding with her family in Amsterdam and became a victim of the Holocaust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Polonsky</span> Israeli book illustrator and artistic film director

David Polonsky is an Israeli book illustrator and artistic film director.

References

  1. 1 2 "Où est Anne Frank !". Le Pacte . 27 November 2021. Archived from the original on 27 November 2021. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Where Is Anne Frank de Ari Folman (2021)". UniFrance . Archived from the original on 8 August 2022. Retrieved 24 September 2022. Technical details > Coproducer countries : Belgium (58.22%), Luxembourg (21.08%), France (10.36%), The Netherlands (10.34%)
  3. ↑ "Where is Anne Frank? Feature Film, 2019-2021". Crew United. Archived from the original on 24 September 2022. Retrieved 24 September 2022.
  4. ↑ Desowitz, Bill (24 September 2021). "'Where Is Anne Frank': How Ari Folman Got Animated About the Legendary Diary". IndieWire . Archived from the original on 28 May 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  5. ↑ "Holocaust Remembrance: UNESCO in Venice screens Ari Folman's "Where is Anne Frank"". UNESCO . 9 March 2023. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
  6. ↑ "Kitty tells Anne Frank's story". Anne Frank Fonds. 16 June 2021. Archived from the original on 18 August 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  7. ↑ Randolph, Eric (11 July 2021). "The eight-year marathon to bring 'Where is Anne Frank' to the big screen". The Times of Israel . Archived from the original on 11 July 2021. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
  8. 1 2 "World premiere in Cannes". Anne Frank Fonds. 9 July 2021. Archived from the original on 18 August 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  9. ↑ "Ari Folman presents animated movie "Where is Anne Frank" at Cannes Film Festival". The News International . 11 July 2021. Archived from the original on 11 July 2021. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
  10. 1 2 Bradshaw, Peter (9 July 2021). "Where Is Anne Frank? review – Holocaust diary imaginatively rebooted for the YA generation". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 12 July 2021. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
  11. ↑ "So, who is 'Dear Kitty'?".
  12. ↑ Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (1 April 2015). "First look at Ari Folman's animated version of Anne Frank's diary". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 24 November 2016. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  13. ↑ Kroustallis, Vassilis (10 August 2018). "Where is Anne Frank? by Ari Folman: World Premiere at Cannes". Zippy Frames. Archived from the original on 24 September 2022. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  14. ↑ Franklin, Ruth (9 January 2019). "Anne Frank's Diary, in Graphic Form, Reveals Its Humor". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  15. ↑ "Where Is Anne Frank by Ari Folman". Publishers Weekly. 28 July 2023. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  16. ↑ "Where Is Anne Frank | Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  17. ↑ "Where Is Anne Frank Reviews". www.metacritic.com. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  18. ↑ Linden, Sheri (9 July 2021). "'Where Is Anne Frank': Film Review | Cannes 2021". The Hollywood Reporter . Archived from the original on 5 August 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  19. ↑ Hammond, Pete (9 July 2021). "Where Is Anne Frank' Cannes Review: Powerfully Reimagined Animated Holocaust Film Should Make Strong Impact On Young Audiences". Deadline Hollywood . Archived from the original on 18 August 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
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