It is one of the most famous books of all time, chronicling the reflections of a young girl gone too soon from an infamous period of history in the 20th Century.
THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, which reflects a time when Nazi Germany seemingly ruled supreme, has become a symbol of inspiration to generations of Holocaust survivors and young girls of many a generation since.
Now, a brand-new documentary film featuring a living acting legend reflects not only on the long-cherished thoughts of a girl gone too soon from the world she inhabited, but also the experiences of five other girls who went to concentration camps, but whom survived one of the darkest periods of world history.
Dame Helen Mirren tells the story through the diary in ANNE FRANK: PARALLEL STORIES, a film that celebrates what would have been Frank’s 90th birthday had she lived until today.
Produced by 3D Produzioni & Nexo Digital, in collaboration with the Anne Frank Fonds in Basel, CinEvents brings Anne Frank: Parallel Stories to over 140 cinemas across UK & Ireland to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day, week commencing 27th January 2020
Mirren reflected on her involvement in the film:
“This is a story we must never forget. We are beginning to lose the generation of people who are living witness of what happened in Europe in those terrible days, and so it’s all the more important to keep the memory alive looking into the future.
With the advent of the wars in Syria, Libya, Iraq, with the immigration issue that’s happening in Europe, it’s so easy to start pointing your finger at different races, different tribes, different cultures, different people and say ‘you’re to blame for my problems’.
So, I just feel the diary of Anne Frank is an amazing teaching tool, an amazing vessel to carry the real understanding of human experiences of the past into our present and very much into our future. I find it very, very important and that’s why I wanted to do this piece”.
Mirren introduces audiences to Anne’s story through the words of her diary, an extraordinary text that has made the tragedy of Nazism known to millions of readers all over the world, and reveals the brilliant, enlightening intelligence of a young girl who wanted to become a writer.
Mirren’s set, a perfect reconstruction of Anne’s room in her secret refuge in Amsterdam, with every detail carefully recreated by set designers from the Piccolo Theatre in Milan.
Tragedy often focuses on the premature death of a girl whose only desire was to grow up in a world that gave hope, but whose fate actually bestowed hope on millions wherever and whenever they were confronted with conflict and oppression.
This new documentary, according to the press release, asks key questions:
“What would Anne Frank’s life have been like had she survived the days at Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen?
What would have happened to the hopes and dreams she wrote about in her diary?
What would her talented voice have told us about evil, about Auschwitz, about the death marches and about Bergen Belsen?
And what makes her, still today, a friend for millions of teenagers who identify with her youth, her suffering and her fears?”
Anne’s story is intertwined with that of five Holocaust survivors, Arianna Szörenyi, Sarah Lichtsztejn-Montard, Helga Weiss and sisters Andra and Tatiana Bucci. Once teenage girls just like Anne, with the same ideals, the same desire to live, the same courage.
Like Anne, they too suffered persecution and deportation when they were very young. They were denied the carefree light-heartedness of their youth; they lost their families, friends and loved ones in the concentration camps.
These stories of the survivors of the Holocaust put words on the blank pages of Anne’s diary, as it fell silent when everyone in the secret refuge in Amsterdam was arrested on August 4th, 1944.
Their testimonies, alternating with those of their children and grandchildren, convey the memory of all the evil they had to live through in the concentration camps, the strength of adolescence in the face of the Nazi oppressors and their cruelty, the return to a normal life and the will to pass on the memory of what happened to new generations.
Joe Evea from CinEvents says:
“We are honoured to bring this poignant and utterly compelling film to cinemas across the UK and Ireland to commemorate Anne Frank’s 90th Birthday. This important film is a must-see cinematic event and we hope to entertain and educate cinema audiences in equal measure on a date that celebrates 75 years since the end of the Holocaust.”
Anne Frank: Parallel Stories is written and directed by Sabina Fedeli and Anna Migotto, with an original soundtrack by Lele Marchitelli
