Waiting for Anya

Beautifully filmed in a mountainous area of France near Spain. The point of view of a young boy roped into help Jewish children hiding and then fleeing over to Spain. There are some Allo Allo cliched characters played by famous actors including Jean Reno and the quintessential good German Thomas Kretschmann. Angelica Huston is surprisingly okay. There isn't much wrong with the show but it feels boring and cliched with one dimensional characters. But if you accept it is for younger audiences then it's okay for what it is. After all the writer is War Horse's Michael Morpugo.

This is a scenario we have seen many times, in many different movies: a family, a group of children or some other sympathy-worthy bunch of individuals, escape from Nazi persecution by crossing the Alps or the Pyrenees or some other obstacle to reach freedom and safety. Many of these movies are truly gut wrenching, engrossing and emotional experiences, sadly, this movie is not quite up to that standard. In fact, it's rather bland.

The makers of this movie mean well, you can see that, but they miss the mark. The scenery is gorgeous. The outdoor shots of the village mostly look suitably authentic. The interior shots though look more like what Hollywood thinks a provincial home, shop or school should look like rather than the real thing. The casting is slightly odd too. It seems a peculiar choice to cast two high profile American actors as French peasants when everyone else in the movie is French or German as the case may be. Angelica Huston and Noah Schnapp are fine actors. I like them both, but they are miscast here. The story here isn't particularly interesting and certainly doesn't evoke the emotional response it should. The story seems rushed and there is a lot that is left unexplored. We never see below the surface of the characters or learn what makes them tick. We don't get to know the characters well enough to really care about them. There is no sense of threat or danger, no dramatic climax and the ending falls flat. Some scenes seem very amateurishly staged. For instance, there is a scene towards the end of the movie where an entire village is supposedly rejoicing. It is the most halfhearted, anemic, poorly attended celebration I have ever seen.

To cut a long story short, this is not a bad movie; there's just nothing special about it. There are so many better and enjoyable movies in this genre that I find myself wondering why the heck they made this one at all. If you really want to see this sort of thing done right, may I recommend the movie 'Fanny's Journey', which was recently streaming on Netflix. It is one of the good ones and there are many others.

Anjelica Huston is the widow "Horcada" who has for quite a while been serving as a conduit to help escaping Jewish and French citizens across the Pyrenee mountains and into the safety of neutral Spain. The arrival of a small but menacing Nazi detachment in their village, however, makes this task even more perilous - and she is fast running out of allies. It's at this point that she turns to the young "Jo" (Noah Schnapp) who is more accustomed to herding sheep, and soon he is providing an essential link trying to get the escapees to freedom. The story here is not that unfamiliar, but there is a solid effort from the engaging young Schnapp and the writing does try to humanise the occupiers - largely via the persona attributed to the corporal (Thomas Kretschmann) - as the story gradually develops. Tómas Lemarquis exudes a fairly subtle degree of menace as their commander and a solid supporting cast including Jean Reno and Sadie Frost help keep this nicely shot, if largely unremarkable and maybe just a bit too wordy, drama moving along to the only denouement we were ever going to get. It is a nice, feel-good, film that makes for a perfect afternoon tea and biscuits watch. Don't expect anything gritty or harrowing, just enjoy some stunning cinematography and a few characterful leading performances.

Waiting For Anya tells the story of a small village in the French Pyrenees. The scenery is beautiful and you'll feel immersed.

I think many people looking to learn more about the time period will enjoy this film.

It is always easy to paint one group of people as all evil and another as all good, but this story beautifully portrays the consequences of individual choices. While most German soldiers went along willingly with the Final Solution, there were those who quietly did what they could to resist. A good friend of mine who survived Auschwitz did so because a high-level German electrical engineer took him under his wing for more than a year and a half, hiding this Jewish boy in plain site from those who would gladly have killed him. And there were many individuals, French and other non-Germans, who willingly cooperated with what the Nazis were doing to the Jews. Each of us needs to ask ourselves what we would do, given the opportunity to stand up to evil like this, even if it put our lives at risk?

I for one am glad that this film quietly tells the story of the courage of an entire simple French mountain village, beginning with a shepherd boy who cared about the welfare of others. The very ordinariness of what is portrayed here, within the extraordinary larger context of the Second World War, is part of what makes this story so special. Yes, it is fictional but it is based on real events. This film is also beautifully filmed and is movingly expressive of human courage. As Proverbs 24:11-12 states, "Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, "Surely we did not know this," does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?" I for one strongly recommend this film as truly worth seeing!