2023 / Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States / Color / status : completed / English, Dutch / International collections
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.
Press
«An entirely fresh, provocative and soul-shaking film.»
The Hollywood Reporter
«Essential. This is vital cinema with one eye on the not-so-distant past and the other on our precarious future.»
Los Angeles Times
«A documentary heroic in scope and ambition.»
The New York Times
«A monumental film.»
The Guardian