‘My Best Friend Anne Frank’ review

Maria Munguia, Reporter

“My best friend Anne Frank” is a movie based on the real-life relationship between Hannah Goslar and her best friend, Anne Frank. The film was inspired by a biography published in 1997 called “Memories of Anne Frank: Reflections of a childhood friend” by Alison Leslie Gold. The film won the Golden Film Award in 2021.

The story takes place from a Nazi-occupied Amsterdam to their heart-wrenching reunion in a concentration camp. The film shows another side of a story that is well known by many. Anne and Hannah’s life before being captured shows how much people have changed after experiencing tragic events during the Holocaust. Hannah was a caring rule follower and Anne was more of an out-going daredevil who always appeared confident, which Hannah admired.

The film shows the hardships that Hannah Goslar went through before and during her time in the exchange camp, which wasn’t as horrid as the other areas of Bergen- Belsen. Eventually, Hannah discovers that Anne did not make it out of the country with her family and was in the concentration camp right beside the one she was in. She begins rationing her small amount of food to toss over the fence for the starving Anne Frank. Hannah tears away the hay from the fence to peek across and see her best friend the day before she is liberated from the exchange camp with her younger sister. Anne was extremely ill, her hair had been shaved off and she was weak and terrified but the sight of Hannah gave her the ability to smile one last time before she passed away. Hannah grew confident in herself and vowed to become a nurse and travel the world as Anne would have wanted. Her revenge on Hitler was that she had many kids, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. This story is a parallel to “The Diary of Anne Frank”.