A Small Light

I enjoyed this telling of the Anne Frank story from the side of Miep Giles. Has inspired me to read Anne’s diary.

Even if pieces are dramatized still good to see history shown.

Deeply moving and a stark reminder of the horrors of fascism and anti-semitism.

Kein Fußbreit dem Faschismus!

What a fascinating different perspective of the Anne Frank story following the secretary who helped hide the Franks. Its slow moving at first but the plot development speeds up and so does the intensity of the plot points. The short series does a great job of showing how bad everything was in Amsterdam at the rising power of the Nazis, as a small genuine family like the Franks just had their whole world turned upside down, but that hope was a very powerful weapon. Very emotional and real and edge of your seat worthy.

There's something gut wrenching about watching a true story that you know almost all the "heroes" of the story die. This is the story all Americans need to be reminded of, and far too many in the UK and even Germany now.

"The Diary of Anne Frank" used to be required reading in American public schools in middle school, but with the right wing republicans had become an argument about whether to expose their children to Jewish suffering, another religion, the horrors of war, and the truth about fascism and the insidious reality behind it.

But this point of view, from the Dutch/Austrian secretary, is very telling. People then let the Nazis step right in, shocked and not wanting a fight. But this shows with fascists , they will bring the fight to you. I'm amazed at the mistakes the Jan and Miep made that sheer luck helped them along.

The biggest surprise here though is Liev Schreiber. We think of him as a meathead actor, pigeon holed like Schwarzenegger or Stallone. But here, he gives a masterful performance as Otto Frank. Seriously masterful, dramatic portrait of the man. This is rare to see. If you see his name and think, "ugh", think again.

The only complaint I had was the entire exit of her Nazi loving bestie. They flash a memory at the end, but never say way happened to them. The Nazi collaborators were just as bad and deserved the same punishments. Did she and her money grubbing Nazi collaborator go on to live fantastically sound, wealthy lives? If so, that might explain why we have so many right wing "conservative" Nazi wannabes globally right now. But I digress.

9.3 out of 10. Liev Schreiber is a near perfect 10 in his portrayal.

Never give in to fascism. Kein Fussbreit dem Faschismus

[Disney+] Although there are some creative decisions that can be debatable, especially in terms of updating the story through fictional characters, the series grows as the shadow of the Nazi threat becomes more suffocating. Actress Bel Powley does a great job of developing her character from her idealism and naiveté to a moral commitment to victims of persecution, putting humanity before safety. It has a good production design and a great soundtrack by Ariel Marx that turns Anne Frank into a secondary character, but whose spirit of resistance and dignity permeates the entire story.

It's a good telling of the story from a orignal perspective, but I think they should have respected the Dutch and German languages. These days people watch shows in all kind of languages (La casa de papel. Squid Game for example) and it's all but necessary to divert from the native language, especially in a historic telling. That said, the actors did a great job.

It is so heart breaking story.

Initially coming across as a little odd, this grows into a highly tense and deeply emotional story. The tragic life of Anne Frank is well known, but this elects to tell things from the perspective of the woman who agreed to keep her and her family hidden from the Nazis.

I'm often drawn to the more detailed, personal stories of World War II and this delivers. Life in Amsterdam under Nazi occupation is depicted as more complex than the image we may have in our heads. People are confused, angry and absolutely terrified and they deal with it in different ways. Some choose to resist. Some choose to stay out of it as much as they can. Some choose to become collaborators, either out of fear or out of opportunity.

An initial hurdle with this miniseries is that the dialogue and characters all feel very modern. It was taking me out of things, but after a couple of episodes it started to feel like quite a natural choice. It enabled me to relate to the characters easily, and eventually I wasn't even noticing. The character's accents are also confusing, with a mixture of English and German voices and not much I could tell to differentiate what they represented. The Frank family alone are a big mix of accents, and I would have appreciated some clarification.

The performances here are fantastic, with Bel Powley, Joe Cole and Liev Schreiber being the standouts. The rest of the cast don't get as much screen time and less opportunities to make their mark, but everyone fits in very well. While this chooses to stay largely family friendly, that doesn't mean it isn't powerful, and while the horrors of WW2 aren't explicitly shown they are certainly felt and this doesn't attempt to gloss over the darkness.

And in the end anything that shows a new generation what utter evil bastard scum the Nazis were is good, especially when the message is delivered as well as this.

They add woke drama, too far from the true story. The character is not like the real Miep, Disney keep doing it, good actors, bad directors, bad writers, instead a good show, it is like a soap opera based vaguely in real persons. Skip it.

Trying hard to make this a true story.