2021-12-08
$22.0M
99 min
The film follows the journey of Kitty, the imaginary friend to whom Anne Frank dedicated her diary. A fiery teenager, Kitty wakes up in the near future in Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam and embarks on a journey to find Anne, who she believes is still alive, in today's Europe. While the young girl is shocked by the modern world, she also comes across Anne's legacy.
I rather liked the premiss of this rather unique take on the story of the Frank family who hid out in an Amsterdam attic for much of the latter half of WWII. Anyone who knows the story of young Anne's diary, will know that she addressed her daily entries to her imaginary friend "Kitty", and so Ari Folman rather cleverly takes the story from the pages of her book and tries to explain to us, via her animated characterisation, just what did happen to the youngster and her family. Pretty soon "Kitty" discovers that she cannot exist too far from the museum in which the diary is kept, so she decides to pinch it - causing considerable uproar - and together with her friend "Peter" discovers not only what happened to the young girl at Bergen-Belsen, but that there are still huge issues in Europe around immigration. It is this latter part that rather gets in the way of the narrative, I found. It's not that this modern-day story doesn't need telling, it's that it isn't a natural fit with this tale of Nazi atrocity (which is effectively portrayed here using dark-caped creatures that would not have looked out of place guarding the "Emperor" in "Star Wars"). The poignant story of the end of her life is largely under-explained; indeed just quite how she was captured isn't mentioned at all. It seems that Folman has become more focused by the last third of the film on current issues, and the actual answer to the question posed by the title is left adrift a bit. Some of the animation is well crafted and imaginative, though, as is the scoring which I felt added well at the start. It is certainly thought provoking, and is a film to see, but perhaps one for television. If it inspires anyone to read the diary itself, then job well done.
