Ari Folman’s first international animated film on the Holocaust has been selected as part of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival official selection.
In her diary, Anne Frank addressed her imaginary friend Kitty. In his new animated film Where Is Anne Frank, Israeli director Ari Folman brings Kitty to life for the first time, telling her own story.
In search of her best friend Anne Frank, Kitty becomes a witness to the Frank family’s last months in the Holocaust, and to Europe after the Second World War. This first international Holocaust film for young people tells Kitty’s adventurous coming of age story, through her harrowing journey in Anne Frank’s footsteps where she is confronted with the challenges of the present day.
Ari Folman, the son of Auschwitz survivors himself, says: “The Holocaust was a singular genocide that we will never really understand. Anne Frank’s diary allows us a view of the victims, and Kitty pursues Anne’s legacy in the present.” On her adventure, Kitty functions as a bridge between past and present. Once she understands the consequences of the genocide of the Jews in the Holocaust, she engages as an activist for children’s rights, following the credo: “Do all you can to save even one only child.”
The animated film combines classic 2-D with a stop-motion background technique and was produced in fourteen countries. It is based on Anne Frank’s globally successful Diary of a Young Girl and was realized with the approval of the Anne Frank Fonds Basel, founded by Otto Frank in 1963. The film will premiere in the official selection of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and will then be shown in cinemas all over the world.
Contact:
PURPLE WHALE PRODUCTION
Phone: +352 45 19 601
E-mail: samsa@samsa.lu
www.whereisannefrank.com