“Set during the end of WWII, Black Book is the story of a Dutch Jewish girl who narrowly survives the war in Holland. She joins the resistance to find out who betrayed her family after all of them were killed in an attempt to reach the liberated south.” IMDB

Zwartboek (Black Book) is a brilliant film directed by Paul Verhoven, responsible for huge blockbusters such as Total Recall, Basic Instinct and Starship Troopers. Here he goes back to his native Netherlands however for a superb WWII film so very different to his mainstream fare. I’ll leave IMDB to outline the plot in detail but I’ve not seen such a mesmerising performance by someone in many years – Carice van Houten is simply stunning, captivating, beautiful and sharp in her lead role here and brings a genuine moral ambiguity and strength alongside frailty to the film.

*****