“Black Book”, starring Candice van Houten and Sebastian Koch is directed by Paul Verhoeven.

“Black Book” opens in Israel with Rachel and Ronnie, two women reunited ten years after the end of WWII. It is 1956, and Israel is in the midst of the Suez Canal Crisis. Soldiers are guarding the kibbutz, and we hear bombs exploding in the background. Ronnie is with her husband, and they are on a tour bus, and it happens to stop at the kibbutz where Rachel is teaching. When the tour bus leaves, Rachel walks down to the river to sit in quiet and meditate on her experiences during 1943-1944 WWII, when her entire Jewish family was murdered as they attempted to cross, by boat, into a liberated area in the southern Netherlands.

Rachel wants revenge on the Nazis involved in the setup that led to the murder of her family. She joins the Dutch resistance, and therein begins a thriller story of drama, intrigue, intensity and darkness, when Rachel begins work in the office of an SS officer named Muntze. I could say more, but that would give the film away, and in order to grasp the full extent of its story I will recommend you see it, yourself. I will leave you with the idea that “Black Book” is not only about fugitive Jews, the resistance, spies, but also about the choices one makes under adverse conditions during the darkest hours of history.

“Black Book” is a compelling film, with incredible cinematography, filmed in such a way that one feels they are right in the middle of the landscape, a landscape of death and of darkness during World War II. Paul Verhoeven’s use of light and and color give us the sense that we are watching a 1940s film, and not one that was filmed in 2006. His directing is brilliant and remarkable, the acting is superb, the story line is poignant, intense, harsh, and unrelenting in evoking the mood and emotion of the time period. “Black Book” is engrossing from the beginning to the end, and is metaphor for war and love, loss and redemption, and what individuals will do under circumstances that belie description. It is a sweeping and epic sage of profound dimensions, leaving one to ponder if they truthfully know what they would do under similar circumstances.

Paul Verhoeven lived through this time period, and grew up in the Netherlands. He co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Gerard Soeteman. According to him, “In this movie, everything has a shade of grey. There are no people who are completely good and no people who are completely bad. It’s like life. It’s not very Hollywoodian.”
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Jew Wishes…Peace to you all.
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