Black Book

Directed by
Paul Verhoeven

Written by
Gerard Soeteman

Production
San Fu Maltha, Jos van der Linden, Jeroen Beker, Teun Hilte, Jens Meurer, Topkapi Films, AVRO

Release year
2006

Runtime
145 min

Story

It is late Summer in 1944, and when the hiding place of beautiful Jewish singer Rachel Steinn is accidentally bombed by warplanes, she decides to join a group of Jewish refugees to make an escape into liberated Allied territory. The boat they are escaping on is intercepted by a German patrol and all the refugees are savagely murdered with only Rachel escaping the hideous carnage.
She joins the Resistance taking the name Ellis de Vries and manages to befriend a high ranking German SD officer called Müntze. He becomes besotted with her and offers her a job. The intrigue deepens further when a plan by the Resistance – which involves Ellis – to rescue some of their imprisoned comrades goes horribly wrong because of a terrible betrayal. Ellis is accused of treachery by both the Resistance and the Germans. Accompanied by Müntze, she again goes into hiding where they wait together for the war to end. But the end of the war and liberation doesn’t give Ellis the freedom she longs for. ‘Every survivor is guilty one way or another’.