In the same sense that we shouldn’t constantly get slavery movies just to show the same horrific acts being committed, it is my belief that any new film about the Holocaust needs to have a new, unique story at its core. Where Is Anne Frank takes the darkest chapter of human history and tells it through a child lens, specifically through Anne Frank’s diary. Brought to life on screen via 2D animation and beautiful watercolor backdrops, Ari Folman’s latest is a kaleidoscope of beautiful visuals and good intentions, even if some of them don’t exactly land.
Two Stories at Once, Both Beautifully Animated
Woven into its script is a two-part narrative, one in the past and one in the present, and the film hops back and forth between the two with wonky results. In the past, we see Anne (Emily Carey) being gifted an empty diary for her birthday and her making the decision to write it in the form of letters to her imaginary friend Kitty (Ruby Stokes). In the present, in the middle of a lightning storm, we see a long line of people waiting to see the Secret Annex and see her diary. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning strikes her diary, and the ink flies off the pages and brings Kitty to life as a real, tangible person.
This split narrative results in unintended problems and logic gaps. For starters, the present story takes too long for Kitty to realize what actually happened to Anne. The continuity is bizarre, since the past timeline involves Anne talking to Kitty constantly, which should’ve allowed Kitty to have more knowledge than she claims to have in the present. There is also a shaky rule explained to us on when Kitty is a tangible person and when she is not.
Folman has stressed that the main goal of Where is Anne Frank is for a heavy true story like this to reach a younger audience, to help educate kids on real historical events as well as inform them about current political issues. Though his script struggles to keep that balance, his sensibility in visuals and imaginative storytelling shines through.
Several times, the film would include beautiful dreamlike sequences that only animation can pull off. The scene transitions, the sound design, the atmosphere – it all lands. Only in animation can you see a train to the concentration camp visualized as a boat going down the River Styx, in which Cerberus, the three-headed dog, is on a leash held by a tall looming figure cloaked with a swastika. These moments are not only creative, but they help children fill in some of the blanks in history that they might be too young to take in just yet.
The Plot Stumbles
Unfortunately, the film stumbles every time the plot comes back to the present timeline. At first, it plays with a substantial idea, that is Kitty trying to understand why bridges, buildings, museums, and theaters are all named after Anne Frank. It all neatly contributes to how society can easily turn historical figures into artifacts, all while forgetting the core of their messages.
The problem comes when Where is Anne Frank prioritizes plot. Kitty is branded as a thief for stealing Anne’s diary (she needs it to exist in the real world, just go with it). There’s a romantic subplot between Kitty and Peter (Ralph Prosser), which can be interpreted as what could’ve been if Anne and her Peter (Sebastian Croft) survived, but it just never tonally gels with the rest of the film. Lastly, Folman attempts to connect – or at least parallel – the Holocaust with current urgencies, using an entire subplot involving Malian refugees.
Though I can understand Folman’s good intentions about teaching younger viewers about global issues like anti-Semitism and anti-immigrant policies, things get a bit eyebrow-raising once you stop and think about the details a bit more. This is a film that jumps between Anne being pursued by Nazis and Kitty being pursued by Dutch police. Then it jumps between Jewish people being sent to camps to be executed and Malian refugees being pursued to be sent back home. Folman treads through tricky territory, and it’s unclear when we should and should not take the parallels literally.
Where is Anne Frank: Good Enough for its Goal of Reaching Children
Fortunately, the most memorable moments of Where is Anne Frank are the creative sequences that blend reality and fantasy together. When Anne goes to sleep, she dreams about her Hollywood idols like Clark Gable riding a Pegasus, along with other fantastical beings, battling against the Nazi army like something out of Imaginationland. These sequences are beautifully realized and do wonders in holding a child’s hand to understand and absorb the darkest chapter in human history.
The film is good enough to meet Folman’s goal of educating the next generation of children and helping them become aware of what’s happening out in the world, both past, and present. The adults, however, are going to wander off on the logic, the plot choices, and the tonal imbalance.
Did you see Where is Anne Frank? What did you think of the film? Share below!
Where Is Anne Frank premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival on July 9, 2021.
Watch Where Is Anne Frank
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