Holland 1944 - The final years of the Second World War find the beautiful singer Rachel Stein (Carice Van Houten) taking refuge with the Tsjempkema family in rural Holland. Once a popular and wealthy singer, Rachel has been waiting out the war like many Jews in Europe, separated from her family and a moment away from being caught by the Gestapo. Her temporary safe-house is destroyed by an Allied bomber under fire by a German fighter and Rachel is left in the arms of Rob (Michel Huisman), a sympathetic young boy, who promises to help her to safety. The next morning, Rob takes Rachel to her contact in town, who she hopes will help her find her family and escape across into liberated territory. Rachel's voyage takes off from there as she continuously struggles for survival with numerous allies from both sides of the war.
Just a heads up that I didn't know about until renting this. Its a foreign movie. So, if you don't do subtitles - don't do this movie. That being said - I have a very simple rule of what makes a subtitled movie good or not. Whenever you are enjoying a foreign movie so much that you forget that you are actually reading the words on the screen - its good. This movie was not only a good foreign movie after passing my simple test. It was actually a really great movie. The back and forth storyline keeps you very interested and on your toes because you have no idea what will happen next. The suspense was very well crafted and the performances were great . . . . . even though I have no clue who any of the characters were. It really drives home what those poor people had to go through.
I fully recommend this movie for rental . . . . as long as you can handle foreign movies. WW and I both truly enjoyed it.
