Film review: My Best Friend Anne Frank

We all know of Anne Frank's diary, kept while she was living in hiding with her family and another family in Amsterdam during the Second World War. This film is focussed around Hanneli, her best friend, and demonstrates clearly the fears and anxieties of Jewish families after the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. While parents tried to protect their children from the knowledge of what was going on, it is clear that the children could see what was happening as their rights and freedoms were being reduced, and friends and neighbours were being taken away.

Hanneli and Anne are best friends, playing together, talking about boys, growing up, and their hopes and dreams for the future. Anne's family even promised to take Hannah with them when they left the Netherlands for the safety of Switzerland, and Hannah was clearly confused and distraught over being left behind when the Franks suddenly disappear.

Without ever being graphic or overtly violent, the film clearly shows the abuse meted out to the Jews from long before their incarceration in concentration camps. However, it also portrays the complicated communities within the camps as the prisoners both supported one another but also had to fight for their own survival and to have their most basic needs met.

Flashbacks from the camp setting show the girls' deep friendship from the years before the war, and the strength which they give to each other. The memories they shared clearly created a bond beyond blood - and I appreciated the fact that Anne wasn't presented as some sort of saintly figure, but as a normal teenage girl who could irritate her friend and not know when to stop her teasing, as well as being her closest friend and confidante.

Although in many ways this film didn't tell me anything I didn't already know from other sources, I found it both compelling and horrifying. Seeing the way people can treat other people as 'less than' in such clarity leaves me reeling every time - and weeping at the thought that this still goes on. Not a comfortable or easy watch, but I'm glad I did.

(This was my subtitled film for Film Critic as it's in Dutch with some German - I did switch to English subtitles halfway through from Swedish, as I was too tired to concentrate that extra bit!)