#Anne Frank Parallel Stories

Anne Frank is so well known I hoped this documentary would focus at least in equal measure on the "parallel stories" in the title. Unfortunately, I didn't learn much about them. Also, the instagram girl gimmick was useless, with all her #lousyhashtags.

First up, like nearly every other review for this title, I echo the same sentiment- the social media girl had no place in this documentary. That sub-plot added nothing. Absolutely pointless. Next, Helen Mirren. Why? Why the cringey emoting? I get that she is an actor, but we did not need one here. All she had to do was simply read through the book without trying to channel her inner Anne.

The stories of survivors who were born around the same time as Anne Frank were the highlight of the movie, as it should be. Anne would have been 91 today. Tatiana talking about her mother moved me to tears. It was also nice to see the kids and grandkids being interviewed. One could see that they realised they existed in this world because their grandma made it out of Auschwitz. Touching stories.

But why the emo girl? She added nothing to the movie.

I loved the idea of the documentary. Everybody knows Anne's story. It was fascinating to listen to the experiences of other women who were of her age at the time of WW2. Helen mirren was fantastic as always. I really did not understand the point of that Emo kid in the documentary. The trope is this teenage girl who is little older than Anne going to the places of Nazi atrocities. While visiting she post very shallow and lame online posts with hashtags. That was actually cringey to watch. And whoever came up with that idea inorder to be more appealing to younger aundiences should be ashamed of themselves. You have a very low opinion of how much teenagers can understand without the support of the hashtag. Also you are using the hashtag wrong.

I saw this a couple nights ago and enjoyed it very much. I particularly liked Helen Mirren's dramatic readings from the diary as well as hearing from Anne's contemporaries and their children/grandchildren, which makes you wonder "what if" she had been able to hold on a couple more months. Many pictures were incorporated that I've never seen before. Something that didn't work for me was the "modern girl" with the Twitter handle "KatherineKat". Since Anne was writing to a fictional "Kitty", this seems to be Kitty writing back and presumably was a modern day equivalent of a diary but using social media instead. Whereas Anne could expound in her diary, a tweet was by it's nature quite limited. I found that aspect a little annoying, but I suppose younger audiences might well have enjoyed it.