The Anne Frank Gift Shop

Given the title, I didn't know what to expect except to be surprised.

The premise is that the Anne Frank House needs an angle to attract the young. The influencer, the marketers, the museum management, each of their various generations, gather at a meeting to discuss ideas.

Short forms - whether film or book - have to make a quick impact to be memorable and effective, and here is where Gift Shop is a true achievement. In the short running time, we get to know a lot about the meeting goers. They run the gamut - the cynical, the gentle, the disappointed, the crass - and sub-text storylines creep in. We learn about each player's second layer, all in the course of this very short running time.

I am not Jewish (a Christian denomination here), but the remarkable ability of Jews to break down complexity into a few simple propositions, often with humor, is to me remarkable, surely a cultural marker that endows Jews with their near miraculous durability over time. (Of course, given their starring role in the Bible, it may well be miraculous.)

The October 7 Hamas atrocities were my background at the time I saw this, and I couldn't help but be touched by the extraordinary range of emotions this film provoked in me.

This was, in all respects, a masterpiece. Thank you.