Steve McQueen is known for haunting films such as ‘Shame’, ‘Widows’ and of course his slave drama ’12 Years A Slave’, for which he won three Oscars. Since 2018, however, the Londoner has only directed episodes of the miniseries ‘Small Ax’ and ‘Uprising’, as well as the short film ‘Grenfell’ – although we haven’t seen a feature film from him in a while. Now he is making even more waves with his latest project: ‘Occupied City’.
The documentary epic had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last May, where we were also able to see the mammoth project with our own eyes. With a running time of over four hours, ‘Occupied City’ exceeds the reach of a normal cinema visit – because McQueen takes the time that he believes the material needs.
“I think an hour and a half would be a disservice to the film,” the director said recently at the London Film Festival. However, what may come as a surprise to some: He did not stretch his documentary to four hours, but rather limited it considerably so that it would not last much, much longer. She certainly had the potential, McQueen says.
“Occupied City”: 262 minutes instead of 40 hours
Of course, with a running time of no less than 262 minutes, ‘Occupied City’ is not aimed at the classic cinema audience, but rather at cinephiles with a preference for extraordinary films that push the supposed boundaries of cinema – and of course at anyone who is interested in joining them. to come to terms. Interest in the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam in the 1940s. Because that is exactly what Steve McQueen’s latest work is about, based on the non-fiction book ‘Atlas Of An Occupied City’ by historian and filmmaker Bianca Stigter. Actually, ‘Busy’ could have been much more extensive.
“In fact, the movie could have been 24 hours or 40 hours,” McQueen said. as part of the London Film Festival (). Ultimately, he simply did his best to capture this important, 85-year-old story on film in an understandable way. At four hours he seems to have finally found a certain mediocrity.
It is not yet known when we will see ‘Occupied City’ in Germany. While the film is being released to theaters in North America by indie successor A24, New Regency has secured international distribution rights – to release the film in theaters or possibly straight to streaming.
A documentary of monumental proportions
FILMSTARTS editor-in-chief Christoph Petersen awards in our Criticism of “Occupied City” By the way, a strong 4 out of 5 possible stars – however, it does not go unmentioned that the documentary requires a lot of patience from its audience not only because of its XXL running time, but also because of its strictly experimental approach.
However, everyone who takes part will be rewarded with a ‘conceptually brilliant monumental documentary’ that is moving – and especially fascinating – through its comparisons of past and present, of times of war and times of corona-related pandemics.