Anita B.

An intense and heartfelt movie, the story of Anita B immediately captures the attention of the viewer. Anita B is the story of a young girl who has just been rescued from the horrors of Auschwitz by the Red Cross. The movie opens showing a Red Cross van driving across the beautiful, but desolate and snowy mountains. Soon the complex and intriguing character Eli appears to escort Anita back to her new home. Anita's new life commences in the house of her only living relative: her aunt, Monika. Having lost both her parents in Auschwitz, Anita struggles to honor her aunt's request to avoid mentioning the horrors she witnessed. We even learn that Anita was loath to leave Auschwitz as her parents had not survived. Anita does not want to forget her parents and thus confides in little baby Roby about her past. The cinematography was beautiful and the story realistic. Through Anita, Eli and Monika, one comes to understand how much the Holocaust affected people's lives. Anita has a clear case of survivor's guilt, but wants to face the past. Eli and Monika are both frustrated with Anita's inability to forget. Both don't want to remember the horrible circumstances in which their loved ones died. In this way, this film shows us how much the past can influence who we are. Because of their experiences, Monika and Eli have turned into somewhat cold and selfish people. Yet this film also shows that they are not inherently like that, but rather are only trying to protect themselves from their own memories. They don't want to show how they really feel. Instead they have built a wall around them and are only trying to ensure their own survival. Monika's husband acts as the middle ground and tries to keep the peace. The romance between Anita and Eli is not simple. Learning later that Eli has his own dark past, the viewer begins to have compassion for him. At times he is kind and protects Anita, but all too often he dismisses Anita's pleas for him to stop his advances. At times he appears to be the heartless villain. At first afraid of Eli, Anita grows to love him and believes he feels the same about her. In the end Anita realizes what she wants and chooses to leave him.

The development of Anita is especially captivating. At first a small, weak, lost girl, Anita transforms into a strong young woman, who takes hold of her future. She confronts those who try to stand in her way and demands respect. Despite her troubling past, in the end, Anita is able to move on. The only baggage she has is the future.

"Anita B" tells a tale not often told, exploring the emotional challenges of readjusting to "normal" life. The cinematography is picturesque and strangely entrancing, and gives off the impression of a moving piece of artwork. Eline Powell (Anita) is extremely convincing, honest and powerful at every turn, and tells Anita's story with remarkable drive. One of the most effective attributes of the film, however, is the likability of EVERY character. Just as in real life, there is no true villain. Each character is complex and has a point of view, leaving "Anita B" to linger in one's mind long after the viewing is over.

I will start listing the good things I found in this movie: it transmits the passion that has been put in the making. It deals finely with the most delicate matter of the past Century: the genocide of six million Jews during World War II. It gives hope.

On the other hand, however, it shows the (most irritating to me) lack of narrative depth that I so frequently find in modern Italian productions. What kind of audience could find convincing a woman saying to a girl she just met 'the best way to explain to you what love means is playing this melody on the piano'? And people who hurt other people, why would do they do that? We are not given an explanation of their behavior, not a hint. Should we believe that they are just born different from the others, that mankind could be divided into those who keep smiling (the good ones), those who never do (the bad ones) and those who sneer (the deceiving ones)? I hate it when the script requires me a leap of faith to believe the story.

I have my own theory: I think Italian cinema has reached an all-time low and people by now are so used to bad films that good Authors (like the present ones) do not feel anymore the need for a really good production, starting from a sound screenplay. I am Italian and I love movies. Nothing could please me more than watching beautiful Italian movies.

Set in post-World War II Europe, Roberto Faenza's compelling film follows the path of Anita: a fifteen-year-old Hungarian orphan and Holocaust survivor sent to live in Czechoslovakia with her only living relative, Aunt Monika. Anita falls from the grasps of Auschwitz into the threshold of a different kind of imprisonment, as she is unable to leave her new home until her papers arrive. Stuck within the confines of her aunt's house, Anita's only serious companions are Robby, Monika's baby son, and Eli, the handsome and devilish younger brother of Monika's husband. As she falls into the rhythms of the home and a budding romance with Eli, her new life appears to be set until she encounters and befriends David—a young and sincere Jewish man with dreams of a new life in Jerusalem. Now, harboring a huge secret and once again faced with the difficult decision of leaving behind all she knows, Anita must take matters into her own hands as she forges her future.

Based on Edith Bruck's popular Italian autobiographical memoir, "Quanta Stella C'è Nel Cielo", the film expertly deals with the powerful and rarely depicted theme of post-Holocaust survivor's guilt. Anita, the sole survivor in her immediate family, constantly yearns to discuss her devastating past with anyone who will listen. However, her pleas fall on deaf ears. Neither Eli nor Monica, both survivors in their own right, wish to relive what happened; much to Anita's chagrin, they insist on moving forward and never addressing the past. Constantly reminded "surviving is one thing and living is another," Anita stumbles over the harrowing path of moving on, finding a confidante initially in baby Robby, and later in David.

This difficult tale could not be expressed without an unbelievable and complex group of characters and actors; luckily, Faenza has both. Up-and-coming actress Eline Powell captures the title character with an intensity and honesty that resonates with anyone watching. From teenage innocence to survivor's guilt, from demons of the past to dreams of the future, Powell thoroughly explores and represents all of Anita's binary oppositions. And yet, her performance is rivaled by that of co-actor Robert Sheehan. Playing both the friend and foe, Sheehan superbly depicts Eli in all of his complexity. He pushes the character past the flirty Casanova and evil seducer to reveal a tortured soul who cares about Anita in his own, twisted way. Andrea Osvart, playing the remorseful Monika, delivers a brilliant performance and leaves the audience feeling conflicted about her unsteady relationship with her niece. This refusal to identify any character as a villain or hero is perhaps the film's most compelling element; the individuals are simply people, dealing with an incomprehensible situation in the best way they can.

While Anita B. covers a dark and difficult subject, its beautiful cinematography and wide array of multifaceted characters nonetheless inspires hope. "I am traveling light from the past," the title character expresses. "My only baggage? The future."