Oorlogsgeheimen

This is the kind of movie you wish would be made more often today. Instead of relying on CGI and comic book type characters to carry the film, this movie places all the importance on character development and a poignant story line to maintain your interest.

And that it does very well.

The two main protagonists Tuur and Lambert, played by Maas Bronkhuyzen and Joes Brauers are best friends at one of the worst times in human history. It takes place in the Netherlands during the Nazi occupation of World War II. The two school boys are inseparable and spend all of their spare time together including fighting off school bullies who pick on Lambert because of his family's collaboration with their German overlords.

This relationship continues until a new girl arrives at school, Maartje, played by Pippa Allen. Lambert befriends her almost immediately, but Tuur is reluctant to allow her to become a part of their relationship, which he sees as singularly a duo and definitely not a trio.

Gradually, Maartje wins Tuur over and before long, Tuur finds he'd rather spend his spare time with Maartje than with his long time friend. It gets to the point where he lies to Lambert about getting together him after church in order to see Maartje. Maartje reveals a secret about her true identity to Tuur that she pleads with him not to tell anyone, including Lambert. This complication leads to betrayed trust and lands Maartje in trouble with the Nazi sympathizers, for which Lambert receives the blame, thus destroying a once best friend relationship and a new budding young romantic one.

The film concludes with all the poignancy one should expect from a well written, well developed story line, that has war as its central theme coming between young men and women who at any other time would enjoy long lasting and special friendships.

There is no violence, no nudity and no profanity. In short, it is a wonderful film with timeless themes for all ages and well worth the watch.

I stumbled upon this film as I was searching under the war genre, and although it is the main theme, this is a very moving story centered around the strong relationship of two little boys and how their friendship is put to the test as the war begins to affect both them and their families.

I can't stress enough how much I enjoyed the performances of those two kids.

So well acted for boys so young. I hope they both go on to further their careers in the movie industry.

A movie that is both powerful and yet gentle. Superbly acted by all concerned, especially the younger cast members, this movie is simultaneously heart-warming, suspenseful, clever and a damning indictment on war. You will smile and you may shed a tear or two. I have friends who refuse to watch movies which require subtitles. It means that they miss out on simple gems like this.

Very well done film. The child actors are impressive. I took my two teen daughters to a screening and they agreed it is one of the best movies they've seen. Most WWII movies center on soldiers or governments or strategy. This one shows the simplest situations of daily life for children and how huge consequences come of adult error, cowardice, and prejudice. Rather than simply demonize all supporters of Hitler's regime, the film does show with subtly how some were acting out of ignorance, others appeasement, yet others desperation--but it never excuses or dismisses the depth of consequence and responsibility, even for children.

Touching, evocative, affecting but not pretentious. This is what art should be like today. Secrets of War is scheduled for a US release in December 2015. Watch for it.

It is not easy to combine war environment and children's daily life and activities, particularly under any occupation, air raid or other events incompatible with "normal" childhood. On the other hand, these are the times when friendship, common interests, rivalry matter most, and all this - plus other important factors - have been here capably depicted. Child actors provide particularly good performances, but due to their character's age, one can not blame them for not understanding "global realities", e.g. holocaust; moreover, Nazi occupation in Holland was not so harsh as in Eastern Slavic areas, for example. Providing different undertones or scenes would have meant moving beyond children's film concept, towards aware/knowledgeable deeds, but the main characters were about 10 years old!

All in all, a good combination of World War II history and life in an occupied township. Not all films should deal with "correct" attitudes towards Jews...