Grim movie about a grim topic

Rating: 7/10 (30 December 2016)

The Dutch movie Zwartboek was shown in the U.S. with the translated title Black Book (2006). It was co-written and directed by Paul Verhoeven.
The movie shows us the ghastly treatment of Dutch Jews--and, in fact Dutch people in general--during the German occupation of Holland. Rachel Stein--who changes her name to Ellis de Vries--is a Jewish woman who survives the Holocaust and emigrates to Israel. (We know that she survives because the first scene of the film begins with Rachel teaching an elementary class in a kibbutz in Israel. The rest of the movie is shown as Rachel's flashback.)
The plot tells us how she survived, and how she was able to help the Dutch resistance movement as they tried to free their country from the Germans. The movie is extremely convoluted. It's also incredibly violent. It's definitely not for the faint of heart.
The film works because Carice van Houten is so convincing as Rachel Stein/Ellis de Vries. Of course, she's very beautiful, but she's also a great actor. Her beauty enables her to infiltrate the German headquarters, and her intelligence allows her to survive, even though betrayal is everywhere.
The film is long, very sexual, and, as I stated, very violent. If that's the type of film you like, don't miss The Black Book. This really isn't my kind of movie, so I gave it a rating of 7. However, the overall IMDb rating is 7.8, so other reviewers like it better than I did.
We saw the film on DVD, where it worked well. We watched it straight through. However, it's 2 1/2 hours long, so you could watch half of it one day, and the other half the next.