Occupied City
Steve McQueen’s epic documentary about the impact of the Holocaust on Amsterdam is as sincere as it is epic, albeit with only specialised appeal.
Documentary cinema is not short of outstanding films about the Holocaust with the short work Night and Fog (1956) by Alain Resnais and the epic Shoah (1985), Claude Lanzmann’s nine hour plus masterwork, still the greatest of them all. But because what the Nazis perpetrated then must never be forgotten and because there are still naysayers in the world who deny that the concentration camps ever existed it remains important that new works on this topic should continue to be made. One such in 2021 was Bianca Stigter’s Three Minutes: A Lengthening, a novel work studying the depth of meaning to be found in three minutes of old footage filmed in 1938 in the Polish town of Nasielsk showing its Jewish inhabitants in the year before they were deported to Treblinka. Now we have Occupied City which declares itself to be "a film by Steve McQueen". However, it could be argued that a more appropriate description would be "a work by Steve McQueen and Bianca Stigter". I suggest the word ‘work’ rather than ‘film’ because Occupied City is in some ways closer to an installation filmed for presentation in museums but the crucial point here is to stress the key contribution made to it by Stigter (who is in fact McQueen's wife). The screenplay is credited to her so what is spoken over the images comes from her and, above and beyond that, this film stems directly from Stigter’s book Atlas of an Occupied City, Amsterdam 1940–1945 which was published in 2019.
I gather that the aim of Stigter’s book was to name and reference those seized in the city during the period of occupation by the Nazis and to identify in each case the building from which they were taken away. Following in her footsteps McQueen shows us these sites as they are today. Consequently, we see the present state of those buildings that exist while, in the case of those that do not, we are shown the very spot but the accompanying words conclude with the comment ‘Demolished’. In addition to the individual locations which were homes, the film also on occasion extends to other places in Amsterdam either because they were used by the Germans at that time or are institutions which can be shown with comments about their history in those years (thus the film touches on such places as the Rijksmuseum and the Concertgebouw in slightly longer scenes).
Had Occupied City been created as an installation piece it could be regarded as a work which, evoking past tragic history vividly, enables viewers to what might be a related exhibition to see part of it and then to move on. But the fact is that Occupied City is being presented as a cinema film so the audience pays to see it and is expected to view all of it at a sitting. That's a challenge because if Three Minutes: A Lengthening was unusually compact (it lasted a mere 67 minutes) Occupied City goes to the other extreme with a running length of well over four hours. For those with a specialised interest in this period of Amsterdam's history the film may have inherent value and McQueen and Stigter are patently deeply committed to this project. Nevertheless, I find myself bound to ask how meaningful a more general public will find this film to be. Speaking personally, I am all too aware of its limitations.
In Night and Fog, Resnais mainly used black-and-white footage but in some respects it was the contemporary material shot in colour that was the most disturbing of all. That was because it reminded one that the concentration camp sites were still there and that was a potent reminder that the horrors of the Holocaust when pondered in 1956 were not just old history. That blend of footage may have influenced Occupied City since it too links the Holocaust years to the present but here it is done by juxtaposition. All of the images that we see were shot in recent times but all the information that connects specific places to what happened there between 1940 and 1945 comes from the accompanying words spoken on the soundtrack by Melanie Hyams. This is factual, historical information rendered in an appropriately dispassionate tone. However, two problems quickly become apparent. First, the number of victimised individuals covered here means that what we learn of each one is the briefest precis of their lives and eventual fate. Over the film’s 251 minutes this does bring out the weight of numbers involved but the tales are filled out insufficiently for the viewer to register them in any real individual detail. Secondly, the information supplied is so succinct that one has to concentrate to take it in and, despite the geographical connection, the images distract from doing that. Furthermore, if one were reading the words one could choose to have a break or to reread and thus to pace oneself appropriately. Naturally film does not allow for that save that in this case there is a mid-way intermission of fifteen minutes. However, from time-to-time McQueen supplies pauses of a kind by continuing the images after the words have temporarily come to a halt (it’s here that the film’s music score comes into its own).
Some of the modern-day scenes feature particular events ranging from anti-fascist street protests to Covid vaccinations (the latter oddly enough set to the David Bowie song ‘Golden Years’). Some critics have queried possible inappropriate comparisons between the talk of Nazi oppression and the policing of protest against Covid requirements. Given the range of present-day happenings glimpsed that seems an odd way of interpreting the film but if any one incident captured on camera does carry special relevance it is surely the scene in which a speaker talks of the link between then and now and the need to find some way to express that which will attract the young. That could be read as a direct pointer to what McQueen is seeking to do in making this film.
But, if the intentions behind the film demand respect, how successful it is seems to me very much open to question. Particularly in a long film attention to shaping it is surely important and prior to viewing Occupied City I had assumed that the many individual histories described would be ordered in a manner to achieve that, such as by presenting them in chronological sequence. That would give an extra sense of historical progression in the city’s history during these years while also being a useful guide to the viewer as to how much further the film had still to go. But, far from avoiding a sense of being in an arbitrary order, the episodes keep going back and forth in time even if the arrival of liberation is essentially reserved for the late scenes.
If I am left questioning the impact of this venture, it is only fair to stress some of the qualities on display. Steve McQueen is by now a very experienced filmmaker and, once you give yourself over to a long watch, the film passes more quickly than you might expect. That's because McQueen knows how to keep it moving. Furthermore, the colour photography of Amsterdam by Lennert Hillege is expert and those who know the city will have the bonus of appreciating that to the full. Ultimately, though, what concerns me most is the fact that, in my case at least, Occupied City, however well intended, falls short of what a Holocaust film should do. Be it a work as long as Shoah or as short as Night and Fog or, indeed, Three Minutes: A Lengthening, I expect the impact to be deeply moving. But, while Occupied City reminds one of horrors that we need to remember, it never becomes emotionally devastating.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring the voice of Melanie Hyams as narrator.
Dir Steve McQueen, Pro Floor Onrust, Steve McQueen, Anna Smith Tenser and Bianca Stigter Written by Bianca Stigter informed by her book Atlas of an Occupied City: Amsterdam 1940-1945, Ph Lennert Hillege, Ed Xander Nijsten and Steve McQueen, Music Oliver Coates.
Family Affair Films/Lammas Park/Regency Enterprises/Film4/A24-Film4.
251 mins (plus intermission of 15 minutes). The Netherlands/UK/USA. 2023. UK Rel: 9 February 2024. Cert. 12A.
