Occupied city
2023 - 262 MINUTES - NETHERLANDS/ UNITED KINGDOM
A FILM BY STEVE MCQUEEN
Click on the poster to download high rez versioning
The past collides with our precarious present in Steve McQueen’s bravura documentary Occupied City, informed by the book Atlas of an Occupied City (Amsterdam 1940-1945) written by Bianca Stigter. McQueen creates two interlocking portraits: a door-to-door excavation of the Nazi occupation that still haunts his adopted city, and a vivid journey through the last years of pandemic and protest. What emerges is both devastating and life-affirming, an expansive meditation on memory, time, and where we’re headed.
Rating A “ Occupied City is a 266-minute Holocaust documentary with an approach that sidesteps the numbing cliches and concerns about the ethical representation of atrocity. His film includes no archival material or interviews and takes place entirely in the streets of contemporary, open-minded Amsterdam.” - Original CIN
“I liked this film, but be sure to dress comfortably and bring lots of water.” - Cultural Mining
“a monumental symphony of Amsterdam history” - Globe and Mail
“startling, stirring and confounding” - CityNews