Winter in Wartime

Set in the western Netherlands during the hunger winter of 1944 to 1945. Michiel is fourteen and impatient to join the resistance; his father is the mayor, trying to keep things in the village from escalating, which in his son's eyes puts him close to collaboration. Then a real task falls to Michiel: hiding a wounded English pilot. Martin Koolhoven's film uses a child's vantage point without softening it. Michiel loses every assumption he has about who is a hero and who is a traitor, one at a time, and the harshest section is where it becomes clear who the person he trusted actually is. The source is Jan Terlouw's 1972 novel of the same name, a book taught to generations in the Netherlands. It was the top-grossing film in the Netherlands over Christmas 2008 and the first weeks of 2009, outperforming Twilight and The Dark Knight. It was the Dutch submission for the Oscars and made the foreign-language shortlist. Dutch critics named it the best Dutch film of 2008. Who it is for: viewers who like wartime childhood stories and plain, well-built drama. Who it is not for: anyone wanting heroism, which the film dismantles step by step.