The Black Book

Rating: 7/10 (7 January 2007)

This movie is running in Amsterdam from last 16 weeks and it had to be on my list of movies. It is a multi-lingual movie with Dutch, German and English dialogues used  the common link is the Dutch sub-title. The movie is made by Dutch director with mostly Dutch cast.
The story is said to be based on true events. The movie is about a Jewish girl staying in Netherlands during the Second World War  when the Germans attack and occupy Netherlands. The girl's home is bombarded and most of her friends and relatives killed by Germans. The story is about her survival and the help she provides to the anti-Nazi militia force to fight the Germans  by secretly working in a German's army base.
The movie is well made. The main protagonist  the girl  Carice van Houten has done an excellent job. This movie seems a big break for Carice, and she would surely be a forerunner in winning best actress awards  at least in European region. Like all the WWII movies some events shown are quite disturbing and nauseating. There are explicit sex scenes shown to depict how a girl can survive by using her beauty and body and being smart. The movie also shows the type of corruption that went on within the Dutch society during WWII, were some people assembled treasures from deceased Jews family.
It is a long movie that satisfies you totally with the width of events that it provides like an epic. It also presents the movie in a commercial format  with all spices added at appropriate points to keep the interest alive and kicking throughout the movie. At the end of the movie you as audience feel happy. For me it was difficult to understand the dialogues, but I felt happy seeing the movie. I can imagine how happy and proud Dutch people would feel by seeing such a well made Dutch movie.