Occupied City (2023)

Number of Times Seen – 1 (12 May 2024)

Brief Synopsis – Documentary about the people living in Amsterdam during World War II and how the events of the war through resistance or capitulation told the future of these people. in so many different ways.

My Take on it – Such a unique idea that manages to almost succeed in what it tries to do. The film’s in a narration about many of the building in Amsterdam with the history of what happened there during World War Two to its occupants while showing the current location with modern footage. The film is almost 100% dialogue from the narrator who does a wonderful job telling these stories, but it gets very monotonous when listening for nearly 4 and a half hours. Some of the modern footage shown (during COVID mostly) is relevant to the history and shows the contrasts between the 8 decades between the words and pictures, but most of the time it is truly hard to understand the various connections between dialogue and pictures. It rarely make sense as to the order of these stories since it largely seems random in how it all is put together. The vast amount of knowledge and stories that they manage to tell over is very comprehensive, but it’s very difficult to remember each story as is. That being said, there are some overall themes that are quite recurring here which says so much about the time portrayed and the attitudes and fears of the people during those times. This is an amazing idea, that due to a slight lack of focus isn’t as great as it really could have been.

Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – A24’s longest documentary. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (8/10)