The poster for Occupied City is a lyrical mystery, one that quietly manages to encapsulate the film which mysteriously unfurls. Bundled up children are skidding down an icy hill, some sitting politely on sleds while others frozen in daring maneuvers; feet first, belly up, a flurry of limbs encased by lurking buildings. With so few reference points, the latest venture from director Steve McQueen feels bathed in hazy mystery, lending it anonymity as it slips into 2023 with barely any fanfare.
Such intimidating silence surrounding Occupied City’s release is at least partially mandated by its bracingly long runtime. At four-and-a-half-hours long, McQueen’s documentary guides his audience on a tour through Amsterdam while an immaculately composed voiceover describes the Jewish families who were murdered during World War II and lost to the city forever. Present-day footage of the city quietly plays out while these stories are strung together; there is no twist, no narrative, it is a collection of tales and a city.
All the images play with the stories heard, activating the described details and lending them tangible weight. Each moment coils around its successive scene in an unexpected way. A shot of children sprinting around a frosty field in muddied uniforms is abandoned only to be picked up with a shot of a stricken teammate comforted by his parents. A loosely strung story—feelings splintered across a city.
Occupied City is a reflection on the World War II documentaries that have come before, many of which try to grapple such loss and devastation into a definite shape. But it’s Chantal Akerman’s New York City doc News From Home that is the true foundation for Occupied City’s deliberate and engrossing storytelling. Distance and objectivity conceal a staggering melancholy, longing seeping beneath every frame. Like Akerman’s masterpiece, Occupied City follows no plot, instead passing any discernible structure onto a waiting audience whose own interpretations will inform the emotional arc of the film. Like wandering into an art exhibition, your inconsistencies stick out at sharp angles, repositioning the weight of the film and forcing it to hang off your lived experience in striking patterns.
Despite its overwhelming runtime, Occupied City is pressed forward by searing urgency. Anytime audiences are warmed by the serenity onscreen, they are promptly struck by the pain and chaos of each story. Sometimes the two coalesce in brilliant, unanticipated ways.
In capturing the various protests layered across the vast, uneven foundation of Amsterdam, McQueen makes a necessary argument against fascism. At one point, protesters are chased down by police clad in riot gear, each pedestrian ambling along the street at different paces, spreading into the cracks of the city, while police approach in a steady line. It is a startling embodiment of the right-wing desire to bludgeon everything into sameness, demanding an inhuman, evened-out submission. Technically insulated from the narration, the imagery playing out still acts as a contemporary rendering of the stories’ anti-fascist resistance. Such thrillingly captured chaos is a glorious embodiment of self-determination—the kind McQueen’s films are always in search of.
Occupied City is a demanding watch, but this cinematic gamble is singular and rewarding in its emotional intelligence. What this film understands that most other documentaries ignore is that to condense a whole life into a runtime is a futile task, laden with cruel motivations. McQueen exposes this truth by crafting something so wildly ambitious that it is doomed to fail. Even with a runtime more than twice that of a typical feature, it represents only a tiny fraction of the stories from the Holocaust–only a drop in the well of Amsterdam’s film-worthy experiences. Occupied City is something purpose-built to fall short and, regardless, inspire.
Director: Steve McQueen
Release Date: May 17, 2023 (Cannes)
London-based film writer Anna McKibbin loves digging into classic film stars and movie musicals. Find her on Twitter to see what she is currently obsessed with.