Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
Israel, 1956: Jewish teacher Rachel Stein rather unexpectedly meets an old friend at the kibbutz. It brings back memories of her experiences in the Netherlands during the war, memories of betrayal. In September 1944, Rachel's hiding place is bombed by Allied troops; she makes contact with a resistance member and joins a group of Jews to be smuggled across the Biesbosch to the freed South Netherlands. Only Rachel escapes a massacre by patrol Germans, and is rescued by a resistance group under the leadership of Gerben Kuipers, whose son is captured trying to smuggle weapons. Kuipers asks Rachel to seduce SS-hauptsturmführer Ludwig Müntze, a mission that she will soon learn that the boat attack wasn't a coincidence.
Paul Verhoeven's WWII thriller is a genuinely exceptional entry in the genre — morally complex, relentlessly plotted, and bracingly unsentimental about the Dutch resistance. The plot is intricate and surprising, with layers of betrayal that upend conventional war-film morality. Carice van Houten delivers a fearless, commanding performance that anchors the film's emotional and physical extremes. Novelty is high because Verhoeven's pulpy, unsparing perspective on collaboration, heroism, and victimhood is distinctly his own — no other filmmaker would have made this film this way. Cinematography is competent and period-appropriate but not particularly distinguished. The ending resolves the conspiracy satisfyingly but relies on somewhat familiar espionage mechanics, keeping it from being truly transcendent.