About 70 years after her diary was first published, Anne Frank’s legacy is more popular than ever. A few months ago, a fresh (and terrifying) Dutch hit came to Netflix that presented her story through the story of her best friend; And Disney Plus is currently working on a new series, which in the best tradition of the “Schindler’s List” will not focus on the Jewish victim, but on Christians who tried to save it.
It is not clear when the series will air, but in the meantime, “Where is Anne Frank”, an animated film by Ari Pullman, which, thanks to his previous animated work, “Waltz with Bashir”, has become a world-renowned and respected Israeli filmmaker. The film premiered about a year ago as part of the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival, and its distribution was delayed due to the Corona.
Pullman has previously used the diary as a source of inspiration. Together with David Polonsky, he inspired a graphic novel, which was more or less based directly on the original. “Where is Anne Frank,” on the other hand, spreads its wings and relies on it very partially.
In fact, the protagonist of the film is not the author of the diary – but Kitty, who was her imaginary friend. She comes to life in contemporary reality, finds herself in the hiding place of her soul mate, and is surprised to discover that it has become a tourist attraction and a pilgrimage hotspot for the whole world and its sister, including Justin Bieber himself.
Kitty asks – where’s Anne Frank? The answer is complex. On the one hand, everywhere. After all, there is a house named after her, there are streets and schools named after her. On the other hand – nowhere. Her commemoration is superficial and selective. In one of the film’s highlights, its protagonist shouts at a stage production based on the diary, which like its previous adaptations, creates the impression that Anne Frank’s message to the world was that despite everything, she loves him and believes in the goodness of humanity. This is not true.
The original text, in its entirety, was much gloomier, complex and political. The real message was that we all, always, have to do everything to take care of the well-being of every girl and boy in the world.
The world has forgotten this, Kitty has not. She is a guest from another world, a fish out of water, and still able to be shocked by what ours already seems trivial. For example, the refugee crisis, and the hypocrisy and opacity of the international community about it.
So when Kitty meets on the streets of Amsterdam an African girl, a member of a refugee family, they immediately connect; And when she finds out that the Dutch authorities are about to deport the fugitive – the film’s protagonist decides to do something about it, and takes the holy diary hostage until the world sobers up and decides to act on Anne Frank’s true legacy, and prevent deportation.
Work on the film continued for about a decade, in collaboration with hundreds of animators and animators. When Pullman began the process, he must have thought of the African refugees arriving off the coast of Europe. When the film made its first screenings last summer, it was hard not to see it and not to think about the Afghan refugees. Today, of course, it is impossible not to think about the attack on Ukraine, which created the most severe refugee crisis since World War II.
All this illustrates the relevance of the film, which in my eyes is the source of its power and importance – after all, why touch these chewed materials again? What’s the point of going back to the past again if not to say something about the present?
Anyone who has read the original text in full, knows that it is much more than a “Holocaust diary.” Anne Frank wrote in it about history from a broad perspective. She researched what was and pondered what would be, and what could be better. Her father, Otto Frank, who dedicated his life to preserving her heritage, acted in accordance with the order of his late daughter and donated the profits from the sales of her diary to humanitarian causes around the world. Ari Pullman, who created the film at the initiative of the Anne Frank Foundation, continues on their way.
Anna died prematurely, Otto died in good health, and in any case both are no longer here. Kitty, on the other hand, is a fictional character in the first place and therefore also temporary, and Pullman uses it to speak for them. The film is released here in the English version, voiced by Robbie Stokes, who played Francesca in “Bridgerton”, and in the Hebrew version – voiced by Lear Katz, who recently broke out in “Headquarters”.
In Pullman’s vision, Kitty is revealed to be a reddish, opinionated girl with a visor cap, who dislikes authorities and is not afraid of them. Over time, she meets a young pickpocket who is not accidentally named Peter, and develops a romantic relationship with him – minor of course, since the film seeks to appeal to people of all ages, small and large.
Kitty and Peter are both fringe boys, and look like they could fit into the first film directed by Pullman (along with Uri Sivan), “St. Clara.” Although inspired by such canonical text, “Where’s Anne Frank” is also reminiscent of the director’s other films, chief among them “Waltz with Bashir.”
Like “Waltz with Bashir”, “Where’s Anne Frank” is based on a script full of awareness, commitment and willingness to say complex things, and executes it in a pulsating animation, bursting with creativity and imagination. Similar to “St. Clara” and “Waltz with Bashir”, which presented two of the best soundtracks in the history of Israeli cinema, here too the film amplifies the great emotional effect in the first place through the beautiful music. This time, it was written by Karen O, with whom the director has longed to work since she wrote the soundtrack for “Land of the Wild,” and Ben Goldwasser, half of the MGMT duo.
Not only is the legacy of Anne Frank more popular than ever, but also that of World War II in general. Along with this film, two more Holocaust films have been released in our theaters, “Charlotte” and “The Survivor.” Pullman’s version stands several levels above the previous adaptations of the diary, and several levels above most Holocaust films made today and immediately forgotten. “Where’s Anne Frank” is much more spectacular, exciting and sweeping than them, and more importantly – much more up-to-date, ambitious and caring.
When the play according to the diary was first staged in Germany, one of the German viewers sobbed at the end – “this Jewish girl had to be saved.” For years, this was the practice of those who read the text or watched its adaptations. Cry for the one girl, and ignore the rest. Ari Pullman’s film knows that it’s too late to save Anne Frank. He calls for saving all the boys and girls who are left.