WAITING FOR ANYA
***
Director: Ben Cookson
Screenwriters: Ben Cookson and Toby Torlesse, based on the eponymous novel by Michael Morpurgo.
Principal cast:
Noah Schnapp
Jean Reno
Anjelica Huston
Frederick Schmidt
Thomas Kretschmann
Tómas Lemarquis
Country: UK/Belgium
Classification: M
Runtime: 109 mins.
Australian release date: 14 October 2021.
Ben Cookson’s Waiting for Anya is based on War Horse author Michael Morpurgo’s 1990 YA novel of the same name; it is important to know this because it explains the tone of the film - although it’s not spelled out, it seems to be aimed at the same audience as the book, namely young adults and teens. Older viewers will be familiar with many similar films showing how ordinary citizens under Nazi occupation during World War II smuggled Jewish children out of their territories. It is undoubtedly a moving story but, in this case, it doesn’t shed any fresh light on the bravery of the people involved. At least, not for adults, however younger viewers would not be so aware of these terrible events so, for them, Waiting for Anya may be an eye-opener.
The film begins in the summer of 1942 in northern France, already occupied by the German army, but quickly moves to the free south of the country, to the Pyrenees near the Spanish border, where life goes on much as it always has. There we meet young Jo (Noah Schnapp), a shepherd boy who grazes his flock in the foothills. After an encounter with a bear forces him to flee, leaving his sheep and sheepdog behind, he returns to find a stranger looking after the injured dog. The man (Frederick Schmidt) refuses to tell Jo his name and swears him to secrecy but the boy soon learns that he is hiding on the farm of the widow Horcada (Anjelica Houston), an old friend of his grand-pére Henri (Jean Reno). Before long, Jo is making regular visits to the old lady’s house, delivering supplies and being taken into her confidence - she is harbouring Jewish children and the stranger, her son-in-law Benjamin, is taking them across the mountains into Spain. Horcada explains that, “Some people collect coins, stamps. We collect enemies of the Reich [Jewish children]. They get passed down through France. And when they get here, Benjamin gets them out from under my feet by smuggling them across the mountains into Spain. They're safe there.” Benjamin always returns though because he is waiting for his daughter, Anya, who he had to abandon with the instruction to meet him at grandma’s. Their lives are about to get a lot more dangerous, however, because now the Nazis have arrived in the village and they’re determined to stop any people-smuggling operations, whatever it takes.
The creators of this UK/Belgian co-pro have decided to tell the story of Waiting for Anya in English, despite the Gallic setting. That’s fair enough, given that the book was written by a British author, but they have then tried to hedge their bets by having the actors speak in faux French accents, with various degrees of success, and the resulting mish-mash of enunciations can distract from the material. Reno, being French, gets away with the occasional “alors” and “allez!” but Huston and Schnapp are unconvincing and sometimes resort to amateur dramatics to convey their ‘Frenchness’. The locations in the Pyrenees are the film’s saving grace and they are beautifully captured by Gerry Vasbenter’s lens. The mountains, streams, forests and snowy peaks positively glow, providing contrast to the dark goings-on in the village and surrounding farms.
Waiting for Anya is, regrettably, a bit flat and unemotional, although it does manage to be moving in one or two scenes. The difficulty seems to stem from pitching the story to a high-school audience. While it worked in Spielberg’s version of Morpurgo’s War Horse, it’s not easy to convey the gravity and terror of war-time events without making your film too graphic and scary for younger viewers, while still being strong enough to keep them engaged. In attempting to walk this fine line, Waiting for Anya leaves you wanting.
Screenwriters: Ben Cookson and Toby Torlesse, based on the eponymous novel by Michael Morpurgo.
Principal cast:
Noah Schnapp
Jean Reno
Anjelica Huston
Frederick Schmidt
Thomas Kretschmann
Tómas Lemarquis
Country: UK/Belgium
Classification: M
Runtime: 109 mins.
Australian release date: 14 October 2021.
Ben Cookson’s Waiting for Anya is based on War Horse author Michael Morpurgo’s 1990 YA novel of the same name; it is important to know this because it explains the tone of the film - although it’s not spelled out, it seems to be aimed at the same audience as the book, namely young adults and teens. Older viewers will be familiar with many similar films showing how ordinary citizens under Nazi occupation during World War II smuggled Jewish children out of their territories. It is undoubtedly a moving story but, in this case, it doesn’t shed any fresh light on the bravery of the people involved. At least, not for adults, however younger viewers would not be so aware of these terrible events so, for them, Waiting for Anya may be an eye-opener.
The film begins in the summer of 1942 in northern France, already occupied by the German army, but quickly moves to the free south of the country, to the Pyrenees near the Spanish border, where life goes on much as it always has. There we meet young Jo (Noah Schnapp), a shepherd boy who grazes his flock in the foothills. After an encounter with a bear forces him to flee, leaving his sheep and sheepdog behind, he returns to find a stranger looking after the injured dog. The man (Frederick Schmidt) refuses to tell Jo his name and swears him to secrecy but the boy soon learns that he is hiding on the farm of the widow Horcada (Anjelica Houston), an old friend of his grand-pére Henri (Jean Reno). Before long, Jo is making regular visits to the old lady’s house, delivering supplies and being taken into her confidence - she is harbouring Jewish children and the stranger, her son-in-law Benjamin, is taking them across the mountains into Spain. Horcada explains that, “Some people collect coins, stamps. We collect enemies of the Reich [Jewish children]. They get passed down through France. And when they get here, Benjamin gets them out from under my feet by smuggling them across the mountains into Spain. They're safe there.” Benjamin always returns though because he is waiting for his daughter, Anya, who he had to abandon with the instruction to meet him at grandma’s. Their lives are about to get a lot more dangerous, however, because now the Nazis have arrived in the village and they’re determined to stop any people-smuggling operations, whatever it takes.
The creators of this UK/Belgian co-pro have decided to tell the story of Waiting for Anya in English, despite the Gallic setting. That’s fair enough, given that the book was written by a British author, but they have then tried to hedge their bets by having the actors speak in faux French accents, with various degrees of success, and the resulting mish-mash of enunciations can distract from the material. Reno, being French, gets away with the occasional “alors” and “allez!” but Huston and Schnapp are unconvincing and sometimes resort to amateur dramatics to convey their ‘Frenchness’. The locations in the Pyrenees are the film’s saving grace and they are beautifully captured by Gerry Vasbenter’s lens. The mountains, streams, forests and snowy peaks positively glow, providing contrast to the dark goings-on in the village and surrounding farms.
Waiting for Anya is, regrettably, a bit flat and unemotional, although it does manage to be moving in one or two scenes. The difficulty seems to stem from pitching the story to a high-school audience. While it worked in Spielberg’s version of Morpurgo’s War Horse, it’s not easy to convey the gravity and terror of war-time events without making your film too graphic and scary for younger viewers, while still being strong enough to keep them engaged. In attempting to walk this fine line, Waiting for Anya leaves you wanting.