Black Book (film)

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Movie
German title Black Book
Original title Zwartboek
Black Book 2005 film set.jpg
Country of production Netherlands
original language Dutch , German , English , Hebrew
Publishing year 2006
length 145 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
JMK 16
Rod
Director Paul Verhoeven
script Paul Verhoeven
Gerard Soeteman
production Jens Meurer
Jeroen Beker
Teun Hilte
music Anne Dudley
camera Karl Walter Lindenlaub
cut Job ter Burg
James Herbert
occupation

Black Book (Original title: Zwartboek ; German TV title: Das Schwarze Buch ) is a war film by Paul Verhoeven from 2006 based on real events. Carice van Houten and Sebastian Koch are cast in the leading roles .

The Dutch film is a joint production by Egoli Tossell Film, Fu Works, Motel Films and Hector BV.

action

Shortly before the end of the Second World War , the Dutch singer Rachel Stein hides from the Nazis on a farm. The Jewish woman hopes to be safe in the country. However, their hiding place there is destroyed by a ballast dropping bomber. Stein then tries to get to the liberated south of the Netherlands. The boat that is supposed to take them there is discovered and shot at by a German patrol. Rachel watches as all refugees, including her parents and brother, are shot and looted. She is the only one who survives and escapes unseen.

In The Hague she joins the resistance under the name Ellis de Vries and is assigned to Ludwig Müntze, the German head of the security service , with whom she falls in love. Müntze is not a typical SS man ; he detests the atrocities of his countrymen. Rachel gets into a conflict when she feels that her lover is playing a positive role with the Germans and that the resistance is riddled with German spies. In the end, she no longer knows whether to take the side of her lover or of the resistance. When the resistance plan fails to free 40 imprisoned resistance fighters , the situation gets out of hand and Rachel flees with Müntze.

In the end, the long-awaited liberation by the Allies does not mean the end of their flight, as other resistance fighters accuse them of betraying the group and of cooperating with Müntze, who is wanted as a Nazi . Müntze is captured and shot by a German commando with the permission of the Allies. Rachel and Ellis are freed from a collaborator camp by Hans Akkermans, a former alleged resistance fighter in their group . It turns out that he worked with the Nazis to answer for the murder of Stein's family and betrayed the resistance group. Now Akkermans, who also took possession of the assets of the murdered Jews, wants to cover up all traces of the murder of Rachel / Ellis. However, the young woman manages to escape and uncover the real story. When she and Gerben Kuipers, the leader of her former resistance group and father of a killed resistance fighter, are able to put Akkermans on the run, she kills him.

With the gold and jewels stolen from the murdered Jews , De Vries founds a kibbutz in Israel . When she has gotten over the events to some extent and seems to be happy with her new family, the Suez crisis begins .

Real background

The character of Rachel Stein is based on the person of the Dutch resistance fighter Esmée van Eeghen , as Paul Verhoeven stated in an interview:

"[Rachel's] character is based on an actual Dutch woman, Esmee van Eeghen, who was asked by the resistance to start an affair with a German officer. She did and in the process fell in love to the degree that they decided to marry. But the resistance thought she was a traitor, that she had switched sides. The Germans by that time realized she was a spy and executed her. Rachel is a composite, really, of her and two others. "

“Rachel's character is based on that of a real Dutch woman, Esmee van Eeghen, who was hired by the Resistance to start an affair with a German officer. She did that and fell so much in love with him that they decided to get married. But the resistance believed she was a traitor and that she had switched sides. At the same time, the Germans realized she was a spy and they executed her. Rachel is actually made up of her and two other women. "

Premieres and festivals

The film Black Book had its world premiere on September 1, 2006 in Venice , as part of the official selection of the Venice International Film Festival . In the award for the best film, the Golden Lion , he had to admit defeat to Jia Zhangke's drama Still Life . In the same year Black Book as a Dutch contribution to a nomination at the Oscars 2007 in the category of foreign-language best film selected. The film was also in the official selection of the Toronto Film Festival .

The German premiere of Black Book took place on May 9, 2007 at the Zoo Palast in Berlin ; It was released in theaters on May 10, 2007. On January 4, 2010, the film was broadcast as The Black Book on ZDF .

criticism

The Lexicon of International Films judged the film's design to be perfect, it did not impose any moral standpoints and showed both greatness and malice on both sides of the warring camps. The Wiesbaden Film Evaluation Office awarded the film the rating “Particularly valuable” and judged it to be exciting, profound, rich and as an “intelligent entertainment cinema with a sensational leading actress”.

Awards

Web links

Commons : Black Book  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Certificate of Release for Black Book . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , April 2007 (PDF; test number: 109 764 K).
  2. ↑ Age rating for Black Book . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ^ Howard Feinstein: "Black Book" Director Paul Verhoeven. Indiewire, April 2, 2007, accessed December 25, 2014 .
  4. ^ Black Book. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 18, 2016 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ^ Black Book. In: Filmbewertungsstelle , accessed on October 18, 2016.