Occupied City

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Occupied City

PG-13

2023

4h 0m

Documentary

History

War

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

72%

Tomatometer

64 Reviews

61%

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

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.

Critics Consensus

Occupied City is an impressively ambitious attempt to connect the past with the present, although its repetitive approach and overwhelming length will be too much for many viewers.

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Craig Mathieson

The Age (Australia)

10/11/2024

The feature is more about repetition than testimony. Narrator Melanie Hyams’ recounting of individual lives aims for an accumulative force.

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Christina Newland

iNews.co.uk

09/17/2024

3/5

Occupied City is undoubtedly rewarding, both as an example of what boundaries non-fiction films can push, and as the output of an artist who, whatever the subject, forces us to pay attention.

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Sarah-Tai Black

Globe and Mail

04/25/2024

McQueen offers a film that isn’t dispassionate, but rather, with an awareness of such a lengthy history of narrative representation, likens itself to testimony rather than re-enactment.

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Clotilde Chinnici

Loud and Clear Reviews

09/14/2024

3.5/5

In Occupied City, past and present merge. The Amsterdam of today and that of the past exist in the same breath, both struck by their tragedies, respectively the struggles of our modern age and the Nazi occupation of the city.

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Jim Schembri

jimschembri.com

08/22/2024

3.5/5

Director Steve McQueen paces his 4h, 26m essay at an unhurried pace, often leaving you to dwell on streetscapes without any narration. Absorbing as the film is, it’s a demanding sit...the option to soak it all in at home might serve the film better.

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Ray Pride

Newcity

07/02/2024

7/10

<i>Occupied City</i> haunts even as you watch: its length does not exceed its reach.

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Andrew G

@RT24726860 11/27/2024

I understand the juxtaposition, but 4 hours of it over and over. It actually loses the significance. Each story is important and horrible, and perhaps that is what the statement is. It becomes less and less important and shocking and becomes acceptable, which is should not be.

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Sally M

@RT33436890 03/18/2024

Almost half of the audience left at the interval and I wish we had - the second half didn't add or enhance a thing. It was great seeing areas and the life of current day Amsterdam and hearing testimony of the past but there seemed nothing original in a constant voice-over just dispassionately listing what happend during occupation

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Jeff T

@RT74223654 12/29/2023

Extraordinary. It's just settling in for me 12 hours later and will stay with me forever. Using only contemporary footage starting in 2020 with the Covid lockdown to tell the history of a demolished society, street address by street address that saw 75% of Amsterdam's and Holland's Jewish population murdered gives a unique profound sensation to a history that could not have been worse, showing humankind at its most pitiful, serially betraying each other amid countless uplifting stories of valor. Reviewers and viewers will need patience and thoughtfulness to "get" a great filmmaker's deep dive into the abyss shown in a way that no other "holocaust film" has ever employed. Occupied City must be seen. Yes, the running time could have been edited down without losing much substance but the film's shear length and the calm non-ending clinical narrational approach is in itself a challenge to audiences and one of this work's great strengths.

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Steve McQueen

Director

Melanie Hyams

Narrator

Bianca Stigter

Screenwriter

Floor Onrust

Producer

Steve McQueen

Producer

Anna Smith Tenser

Producer

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Synopsis

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.

Director: Steve McQueen
Producer: Floor Onrust, Steve McQueen, Anna Smith Tenser, Bianca Stigter
Screenwriter: Bianca Stigter
Distributor: A24
Production Co: September Film Distribution, Family Affair Films, Regency Enterprises, A24, Film4, Lammas Park
Rating: PG-13 (Smoking|Sexual Material|Brief Drug Use|Strong Language|Thematic Material)
Genre: Documentary, History, War
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 25, 2023, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 23, 2024
Runtime: 4h 0m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital