Memories of Anne Frank, a film which is loosely based on a novel, Memories of Anna Frank: The story of the woman who helped to hide the Frank family by Alison Leslie Gold was directed by Alberto Negrin. In this version, Anne Frank’s diary is only a small part of the narrative. What we see is Anne Frank the little girl growing up with a best friend – Hannah ,  a crush on Peter, and with a little girl’s desire to see the world and experience it.  We also see the important role that Miep Gies, who recently passed away at 100 years old, played in saving the Franks until that faithful day in 1944. Miep’s behavior is so diametrically opposed to the cruelty that we see in the rest of the film thatit makes it even more striking.

The film takes us through Anne’s early years, right before she and her family are forced into hiding. The second part of the film takes place in the concentration camp where Anne is taken with her family and where she and her Mother and Sister eventually perish. The third and final part of the film revolved around Otto Frank and how he used his remaining years to teach the world about Anne and about the suffering that went on during the Holocaust.

Despite a familiar narrative, Negrin brings something new to the screen and enables us to look with fresh eyes at Anne Frank and what her story means. Through a series of rhetorical questions that he has different characters in the movie ask, Negrin gets at the heart of what is so unbelievable about the SHOAH, how could this happen and what kind of monsters could send small children to their deaths in the gas chambers, make soap and lampshades out of human beings and force so many people to their deaths without a second thought.

The movie had very grim and dark moments interspersed with acts of true heroism. Moni Ovadia, played an interesting role as a rabbi and teacher. The little girl, Rosabell Laurenti Sellers, who plays Anne Frank is spectacular and will likely have a long career ahead.

The entire film is set to a sound track by Ennio Moricone, making it even more moving and in some ways, excruciatingly painful to watch. In one scene at the end of the movie, Hannah Goslear, Anne’s best friend who survives the war, gives her little sister a piece of chocolate, the little girl had never tried the sweet and marveled at its goodness. This small gesture of kindness and of all that childhood should be and wasn’t, for Anne Frank and the 1 to 1.5 million children that died in the Holocaust, is a stark reminder of the brutality to which man can subject his fellow creatures. I saw not a dry eye on my way out of the theater. This film will stay with me for a long time to come.