In her diary, Anne Frank said she would “confide everything”. This most famous of diaries was entirely addressed to Kitty, an imaginary friend in Anne’s time of isolation with her family and others. In Where Is Anne Frank?, Ari Folman, who stunned international audiences with Waltz With Bashir, asks us what might happen to Kitty in the latter-day real world.
Folman’s eloquent hand lies everywhere throughout the film. The elongated, thinly-lined characters evoke the rubber-hose cartoons of the 1930s. Caricatures pop in and out: Justin Bieber and Ricky Gervais, amongst others, all pay a contemporary visit to the Frank House. Even a recycled take on Tom Cruise, seen in Folman’s so-so past work The Congress, makes an appearance.
Where Is Anne Frank is not quite touching as I first envisaged, though the PG rating proves this is for the new generation of youngsters. More could have been done to penetrate the still-ongoing mystery of who betrayed the Frank family: a huge case of fascinating injustice. How Anne and her family did in fact die could have also been touched upon more, though the film’s handling of this material remained respectful and dutiful. Anne’s sister Margot is hardly seen here – the bulk of the film is Kitty in our time and her relationship with Anne.
The Nazis are depicted in stylised propaganda, though it adds little depth to their boundless villainy, appearing masked and hooded in a more operatic, Venetian feel. Moments of fantasy in a mashup of Greek myth and Hollywood stars are strange and touching, a surreal battle with the Germans being proof of this. Kitty, voiced by an emotive Ruby Stokes, comes to life through the ink of Anne’s diary. Emily Carey also honours the budding diarist in an honourable voice, though some debate about some characters having American accents may prevail.
Where Is Anne Frank? also aims to address the global issue of immigration, and here becomes undone with hamfisted wishful thinking. In the end, Kitty appears to be the saviour of the immigrants who have made it to Amsterdam, stealing Anne’s diary for a ransom (€100,000, to be exact – surely below the market rate for a book this important) in return for homes for them. She keeps the book throughout the film, as she needs it in order to live.
Everyone who encounters Kitty finds her dubious. Her questions about Anne and what happens to her, as she realises the prevalence of Anne’s name and face across Amsterdam, is the driving point of this film. The Kitty/Anne relationship is mirrored by the public eye: this imaginary girl correcting people on what they got wrong about the city’s most famous resident.
Though Where Is Anne Frank? has performed poorly at the box office, this beautiful animation could fare well as a resource for teachers, and those who want to see another side of Anne’s story.
Dir: Ari Folman (PG, 99 mins)
Where Is Anne Frank? is out now in cinemas
words JAMES ELLIS