A Sad Story Told In A Very Good (5 Part) Screenplay (The Diary of Anne Frank)

Member Name: eyedo6789

Product:	The Diary of Anne Frank
Date:	08/03/09 (45 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good Screenplay, Acting and Directing.

Disadvantages: Would Be Better To See All 5 Episodes In One Viewing

The BBC originally screened this in 2009 in five half hour episodes. It was produced by Darlow Smithson Productions and directed by Jon Jones.

It starred Ellie Kendrick as Anne and also starred Lesley Sharp, Iain Glen, Tamsin Greig, and Kate Ashfield as some of the main characters.

The film, which was in fact more like a play simply because it was set 90% of the time in just a couple of rooms, is from an adapted screenplay by Deborah Moggach based on the diaries of Anne Frank.

Anne Frank and her family were of German Jewish origin but moved to and settled in Amsterdam, Holland.

In the build up to the Nazi occupation of Holland in the Second World War Otto Frank, Anne's father, decided to prepare a secret living area upstairs at the back of his office building. He did this in order that he and his family could hide from the Nazi's who were rounding up the Jewish population and sending them to death camps.

Otto and his family were later joined in the flat by other Jewish people and conditions gradually became more crowded and uncomfortable. All of them were helped immensely by non Jewish friends who visited them each day with food and other provisions.

During their years in hiding Anne kept a diary of the goings on in the flat, her thoughts on the war and the Nazis, her thoughts about growing up as a teenage girl and her general philosophy on life. Her writing was remarkably mature and insightful for a girl of her age.

Sadly she and most of the people in hiding were eventually found out and ultimately died in the concentration camps but her diaries survived and are now a part of social history.

I have seen 2 previous films of the same title and this BBC version stands up very well in comparison to them. I have also visited and been inside the house and flat itself which made the film seem all the more real.

It is a very touching story, the screenplay adaptation and acting are both excellent and the end product achieves a high level of realism when you are watching it.

This review is also posted on www.ciao.co.uk
under my user name bella6789

Summary: A Moving Story Well Worth Watching