Steve McQueen says new film about Nazi-occupied Amsterdam is ‘a call to arms’
Oscar-winning director Sir Steve McQueen says his new film about Nazi-occupied Amsterdam is a “call to arms”.
The four-hour documentary fuses imagery of present-day Amsterdam with narration, taking the viewer through the day-to-day life of the Jewish community under Nazi occupation.
McQueen‘s new film Occupied City is adapted from his wife Bianca Stigter’s Dutch-language book Atlas Of An Occupied City (Amsterdam 1940-1945).
It is the latest offering from the acclaimed British director who counts Oscar-winning Twelve Years A Slave, Hunger, and BBC series Small Axe to his credits.
Speaking to Sky News’s Backstage podcast at the London Film Festival for the film’s UK premiere, McQueen says his four-hour documentary brings back the horrors of fascism.
“I don’t think we can actually understand the sort of fear and the environment that one was in. And also, strangely enough, maybe because of that, people forget it,” he said.
It’s about “bringing it up into the present-day psyche”, he added.
It’s this psyche that brings the film into the path of Britain’s modern political discourse.
Steve McQueen at the London Film Festival screening of Occupied City
In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Human Rights Act and its enforcer, the European Court of Human Rights, were created – with the UK as one of its founding nations.
McQueen’s comments come just days after the Conservative Party conference in Manchester where Home Secretary Suella Braverman joked “I’m surprised they didn’t call it the Criminal Rights Act” while talking about illegal immigration.
“I think whatever populism, whatever drum people are going to beat to sort of get votes or to get sort of noticed I think hopefully people will see through that and understand what’s actually going on,” McQueen said.
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Fusing Amsterdam’s present with narration by Melanie Hyams, the horrors that occurred at each film location are brought to life.
McQueen aims not just to reflect on this part of shared history but also to encourage audiences to think about where we are heading politically today.
He said: “I think that’s what this film is about, it was a rallying cry as a warning of pending dangers of the right, but also the fact that if you don’t do anything, nothing happens. So, it is a call to arms if anything.”
Bianca Stigter
For Dutch producer and historian Stigter, this is an issue close to home as well.
“That’s in Amsterdam and the Netherlands too and if this film can help to be an antidote to that, please, please, please,” she said.
McQueen is optimistic though, saying we shouldn’t underestimate the British public.
“Especially because the last five years have been so turbulent, people are switched on. I am very positive about that particular idea,” he said.
“And people understand what’s going on because they’ve seen through a lot of lies, seen through a lot of the situations where people are not telling the truth.”
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Occupied City posits the atrocities of fascism with the present day, and the Oscar-winning director admits it is “a call to arms”, a “siren call” and a “warning of pending dangers” for his home country.
But when pressed if he believes this “populism” means Britain is at risk of becoming a fascist country, McQueen is tight-lipped.
“Next question,” he told Sky News and moves swiftly onto the next interview.
Occupied City is due to be released in Spring 2024.
For more on London Film Festival listen to the latest episode of Backstage, the film and TV podcast from Sky News recorded at the London Film Festival and featuring interviews with Steve McQueen, Martin Scorsese and Lulu Wang.
Angelina Jolie says although she appreciates being an artist, she would prefer for her legacy to be “a good mother” and to be known for her “belief in equality and human rights”.
The Oscar-winning actress stars as Maria Callas in the new Pablo Larrain film about the opera singer’s life.
Pic: StudioCanal
She has called Maria “the hardest” and “most challenging” role she has had in her career and put months of preparation into immersing herself into the world of opera.
Jolie, who recently reached a divorce settlement with actor Brad Pitt, told Sky News: “To be very candid, it was the therapy I didn’t realise I needed. I had no idea how much I was holding in and not letting out.
“So, the challenge wasn’t the technical [side of opera], it was an emotional experience to find my voice, to be in my body, to express. You have to give every single part of yourself.”
The biopic combines the voice of the Maleficent actress with recordings of Maria Callas.
Jolie believes it “would be a crime to not have [Callas’] voice through this because, in many ways, she is very present in this film”.
Who was Maria Callas?
Born in New York in 1923, Maria Callas was the daughter of Greek immigrants who moved back to Athens at the age of 13 with her mother and sister.
After enrolling at the Athens Conservatory, she made her professional debut at 17 and went on to become one of the most famous faces of opera, travelling around the world and performing at Covent Garden in London, The Met in New York and La Scala in Milan.
Callas’s final operatic performance took place at Covent Garden in 1965 when she was 41 but she continued to work conducting master classes at Juilliard School, doing concert tours and starring in the 1969 film Medea.
Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, Maria focuses on the artist’s final years in the 1970s when she moved to Paris and disappeared from public view.
She died on 16 September 1977 at the age of 53.
Pic: StudioCanal
Jolie on changing motivations as an actor
Maria follows the life of an artist fully consumed by the art she creates and even remarks that “happiness never developed a beautiful melody”.
Reflecting on her own life in the spotlight, Jolie said she noticed her own career motivations change over the years.
“There’s this kind of study of being human that we do when we create, and we communicate with an audience because our work is not in isolation – it’s a connection.
“I think when I was younger, I had different questions about being human and different feelings and now as I’ve gotten older, I understand some things and now I have different questions.
“It’s a matter of life, right? And so maybe that’s interesting that this now is a character really contemplating death and really contemplating the toll of certain things in life that I, of course, couldn’t have understood in my 20s”.
Jolie at the New York Film Festival in September with three of her children (L-R) Pax, Zahara and Maddox. Pic: AP
A family affair
Two of Jolie’s children, Maddox and Pax, took on production assistant roles during the filming of Maria and witnessed their mother perform opera for the first time in public.
She says the film allowed them to create new experiences together and for her children to see her approach to playing a difficult role.
“Everyone in my home, we all give each other space to be who we are and we’re all different.
“I’m the mom, but I’m also an artist and a person and so my family has been very kind and gives me their understanding. They make fun of me, and they support me and just as you’d hope it would be.”
She adds: “When you play somebody who is dealing with so much pain, it’s very important to come home to some kindness.”
Maria is in cinemas now.
Tom Holland’s dad has confirmed his son’s engagement to Zendaya – revealing how the 28-year-old meticulously planned the proposal.
Zendaya, also 28, sparked engagement rumours when she attended last Sunday’s Golden Globes wearing a sparkling diamond on her ring finger.
Neither star has publicly addressed the rumours but Tom’s comedian father, Dominic Holland, has now confirmed the pair are set to wed.
He wrote in a post on his Patreon account: “Tom, as you know by now was very incredibly well prepared. He had purchased a ring.
“He had spoken with her father and gained permission to propose to his daughter.”
“Tom had everything planned out… When, where, how, what to say, what to wear,” he added.
Zendaya arrived at the Golden Globes with a noticeable piece of new jewellery. Pic: Invision/AP
Dominic also noted that while most men worry about being able to afford an engagement ring, he suspects his actor son was “more concerned with the stone, its size and clarity, its housing, which jeweller”.
Tom and Zendaya met on the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016, when they played the titular hero and his love interest MJ, respectively. Their romance was confirmed in 2021.
In his post, Tom’s father admitted fears over whether being in the spotlight could put a strain on the couple’s relationship.
He wrote: “I do fret that their combined stardom will amplify their spotlight and the commensurate demands on them and yet they continually confound me by handling everything with aplomb.”
“And even though show business is a messy place for relationships and particularly so for famous couples as they crash and burn in public and are too numerous to mention […] yet somehow right at the same time, I am completely confident they will make a successful union.”
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Zendaya rose to fame after landing a role in Disney sitcom Shake It Up, and became a household name after starring in Euphoria.
Holland – who has starred in three Spider-Man films opposite his now-fiancée – made his stage debut in Billy Elliot the Musical in 2008.
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