These are the three important themes of this fantastic movie. Set in occupied Holland it begins with the bonding of two boys aged 12 or 13. The stars of the movie are Tuur (Maas Bronkhuyzen) and his friend Lambert (Joes Brauers). Their boys' retreat is a secret cave.
As happens in early adolescence, Tuur starts to better see and more deeply question the complex world around him. He sees his best friend's family collaborating with the Nazis and being bullied for this and then learns by following the furtive actions of his father and older brother, that they are assisting the Dutch Resistance. He witnesses families being arrested and deported to camps in Germany for harboring Jews.
Into this increasingly messy world tainted by the war steps Maartje (Pippa Allen), a pretty but shy girl who says her parents are recuperating in the south of Holland. Initially Maartje takes a fancy to Lambert who wants her to join the activities thus far the preserve of just the boys. Tuur is resentful at first but then develops a crush on Maartje. Pretty soon he only wants to hang out with her and not Lambert and Lambert feels rejected and left out.
Maartje gradually reveals more serious secrets to Tuur: first that her adopted family house an illegal pig hidden from the German occupiers but, more explosively, that she is actually a Jewish girl called Tamar Katz and that her parents were taken away to what she was told was a labor camp. Tuur tells Tamar of his family's clandestine resistance activities. They swear each other to secrecy.
As happens when puppy love suddenly competes with what was hitherto a boys only world, Lambert becomes jealous of the time Tuur and Maartje are spending together and catches them playing in a barn with the illegal pig. Thinking only of his being spurned by his long time friend for a girl, Lambert advises his father who in turn tells the Germans who arrest the family, find a hidden box of photos with the evidence of Maartje's true identity which in turn leads to her arrest for deportation.
Tuur cycles frantically to the town where Tamar is interned in time to see her being loaded onto a truck for deportation to a concentration camp. In one of the most poignant moments of the movie, Tuur breaks through German soldiers to throw a carved stone representation of an Olympic gold medal at Tamar, a gift he had been making for her as she is being hauled off to German incarceration sobbing with the realization of what her fate will be.
Lambert realizes his single revelation has led to the imprisonment of his two best friends. Lambert persuades his German sympathizing father to release Tuur and Tuur arrives home just as his family's activities as resistance supporters are revealed and in a dramatic climax, the family escape to the cave only to be assisted by Lambert (who has joined the Dutch Hitler Youth to please his Nazi loving father) with flashlights and food to enable them to navigate a labyrinth of tunnels to escape to Belgium.
In what is the highlight of thus far a fabulous film, there is a beautifully poignant moment of emotional embrace when the temporarily estranged friends unite in this dangerous act of assistance and departure as Lambert gives Tuur the box of Tamar's photos.
This movie handles explosive issues of how people coped in occupied territories (collaborating versus secretly opposing), the issue of how Jews were treated and those who house them all through the eyes of children emerging into adolescence and the poignancy of first love against the horrors of betrayal and the omnipresent Germans and their campaign to root out Jews. The three child actors did a stunning job that really carries the movie; Maas Bronkhuyzen in particular as Tuur puts in a very powerful performance. I recently had the privilege of meeting the director Dennis Bots. He said Maas (playing Tuur) and Joes (playing Lambert) were so good as actors that they did that incredibly moving scene at the end in only one take after Dennis explained to them what he wanted. The tension in the movie builds gradually and climaxes with powerful even tear jerking scenes! This is literally one of the best WW2 movies you'll ever see.
As happens in early adolescence, Tuur starts to better see and more deeply question the complex world around him. He sees his best friend's family collaborating with the Nazis and being bullied for this and then learns by following the furtive actions of his father and older brother, that they are assisting the Dutch Resistance. He witnesses families being arrested and deported to camps in Germany for harboring Jews.
Into this increasingly messy world tainted by the war steps Maartje (Pippa Allen), a pretty but shy girl who says her parents are recuperating in the south of Holland. Initially Maartje takes a fancy to Lambert who wants her to join the activities thus far the preserve of just the boys. Tuur is resentful at first but then develops a crush on Maartje. Pretty soon he only wants to hang out with her and not Lambert and Lambert feels rejected and left out.
Maartje gradually reveals more serious secrets to Tuur: first that her adopted family house an illegal pig hidden from the German occupiers but, more explosively, that she is actually a Jewish girl called Tamar Katz and that her parents were taken away to what she was told was a labor camp. Tuur tells Tamar of his family's clandestine resistance activities. They swear each other to secrecy.
As happens when puppy love suddenly competes with what was hitherto a boys only world, Lambert becomes jealous of the time Tuur and Maartje are spending together and catches them playing in a barn with the illegal pig. Thinking only of his being spurned by his long time friend for a girl, Lambert advises his father who in turn tells the Germans who arrest the family, find a hidden box of photos with the evidence of Maartje's true identity which in turn leads to her arrest for deportation.
Tuur cycles frantically to the town where Tamar is interned in time to see her being loaded onto a truck for deportation to a concentration camp. In one of the most poignant moments of the movie, Tuur breaks through German soldiers to throw a carved stone representation of an Olympic gold medal at Tamar, a gift he had been making for her as she is being hauled off to German incarceration sobbing with the realization of what her fate will be.
Lambert realizes his single revelation has led to the imprisonment of his two best friends. Lambert persuades his German sympathizing father to release Tuur and Tuur arrives home just as his family's activities as resistance supporters are revealed and in a dramatic climax, the family escape to the cave only to be assisted by Lambert (who has joined the Dutch Hitler Youth to please his Nazi loving father) with flashlights and food to enable them to navigate a labyrinth of tunnels to escape to Belgium.
In what is the highlight of thus far a fabulous film, there is a beautifully poignant moment of emotional embrace when the temporarily estranged friends unite in this dangerous act of assistance and departure as Lambert gives Tuur the box of Tamar's photos.
This movie handles explosive issues of how people coped in occupied territories (collaborating versus secretly opposing), the issue of how Jews were treated and those who house them all through the eyes of children emerging into adolescence and the poignancy of first love against the horrors of betrayal and the omnipresent Germans and their campaign to root out Jews. The three child actors did a stunning job that really carries the movie; Maas Bronkhuyzen in particular as Tuur puts in a very powerful performance. I recently had the privilege of meeting the director Dennis Bots. He said Maas (playing Tuur) and Joes (playing Lambert) were so good as actors that they did that incredibly moving scene at the end in only one take after Dennis explained to them what he wanted. The tension in the movie builds gradually and climaxes with powerful even tear jerking scenes! This is literally one of the best WW2 movies you'll ever see.