A lot of us are wondering lately: “What would I do under the right oppressive conditions?” Two works of cinema address that timely question.
“Number 24” is a powerful, if erratic, work of film, streaming on Netflix. Via RogerEbert.com:
Based on the real-life story of World War II resistance fighter Gunnar Sønsteby, Norwegian director John Andreas Andersen’s “Number 24” is a sturdy, handsomely mounted period piece depicting the emotional toll required for freedom. It begins with an elderly Sønsteby (Erik Hivju) preparing to speak to a group of young students in Rjukan. Andersen’s observational camera takes a documentary approach, leaning on evocative zooms to capture a nervous Sønsteby anxiously biting down on a stick before appearing on stage. He has given this speech many times, but it’s clear the accessing of these difficult memories — “the fifth drawer in his mind” as he calls it — still causes him immeasurable distress.
We see a lot of tense moments and explosions. But the real heart of the movie is the dialogue with one student who is determined to find out about a relative murdered by the resistance.
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