Cause Or Vendetta

Rating: 8/10 (20 December 2009)

Back in the days of the Third Reich when by law it was permissible to treat some people as less than human, it wasn't enough to just kill people. You had to make sure that the state confiscated all their valuables and maybe the state's helpers, helped themselves. And that's what the story of Zwartboek is all about. It's seen through the eyes of a Jewish survivor who did what she had to do to survive.
By the merest chance Carice Van Houten sees her whole family massacred after being scammed out of everything they had by someone who was going to help them and others escape from the Netherlands. Surviving that she finds her way into the Resistance and then because of a chance meeting with a top Gestapo man played by Sebastian Koch with whom she gives her all to find out useful information in general and what exactly happened to her folks in particular.
Zwartboek made over 60 years after the Germans were cleared out of the Netherlands is a mature look back at some terrible times. The Nazis of course are evil, but the Resistance people aren't idealistic heroes. They're allies of convenience in many respects, lots of serious comments about other people's shortcomings are made by characters regarding religion, ethnicity, and politics. Van Houten is accused of caring only about Jews and working on her own personal vendetta.
Sebastian Koch is also a three dimensional character. He's a widower having lost his family in an Allied raid on Hamburg and as such a very easy victim for the charms of Van Houten. But he's also rather ruthlessly seeing which way the wind is blowing and looking to come out of the war alive. Lots of mixed motivations and cross purposes working in Zwatboek.
This German-Dutch production sad to say got no recognition from our own Academy Awards though it seemed to be nominated for something in just about every other country's film society. Shot on location in the Netherlands, Zwartboek is an uncompromising look back at some times that we should be forced to remember.