Black Book claims to be inspired by true events; there was a World War, which ended in 1945; there was a resistance movement; and the Netherlands were occupied, but for all the credibility it delivers, that is about as far as it goes. It is conducted as a flashback, from a Kibbutz in Israel, 1956, so we always know the heroine has survived. Indeed, the human instinct for survival is at the heart of the film. Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten), as a Jew in occupied territory, is constantly forced into hiding and subterfuge, doing things she abhors in order to live, from learning to recite passages of the New Testament, to seducing Ludwig Muntze (Sebastian Koch) the head of the Gestapo in The Hague.

There are many twists in the plot, as Stein becomes involved with the resistance movement and a world of secrecy. With excitement in danger and humour in the macabre, she learns the hard way, as all whom she loves are callously mown down, “You shouldn’t be so trusting in times like these.” The tale is gripping with nuances of survivor shame and questionable morality. One character is appalled that he has committed murder as it makes him no better than the Nazis, the liberators are as cruel to those they consider traitors as the former oppressors, Muntze himself attempts to protect arrested Jews, and Stein faces the ramifications of her duplicity with the heartrending cry, “Will it never end?”

Stein is a sexy singer who has learned to hide her talents, as she remarks, “One day you’re singing, the next you’re silenced,” but the whole film feels like a musical. The shots are beautifully framed and theatrical, with metaphors substituted for meaning. The despicable rifling through dead bodies and violation of corpses clearly demonstrates the sadism of the Nazis, but it is too one-dimensional. The well-lit scenes appear staged and with dramatic music underscoring fight scenes, it felt like watching West Side Story. I expected the actors to burst into song at any moment, and Stein does – if that’s not dubbed, Carice van Houten has a great singing career.

The director, Paul Verhoeven, was responsible for Basic Instinct and he evidently enjoys objectifying women. Van Houten is unquestionably beautiful, but backlighting her so her dyed blonde hair frames her in a halo is over the top. Although so starving she steals the carrots from a rabbit’s cage, she is practically luminescent with perfect skin, healthy teeth and remarkably clear eyes. In a distasteful scene in which her magnificently pert body is stripped and sullied, it felt uncomfortably as though he were directing his own fetishes.

Black Book is a great story, if you are prepared to dispend disbelief. You can take the director out of Hollywood...—Kate Blackhurst