The Resistance was one of the short films included in this year’s Dances With Films festival.
This proof of concept for TV runs under 15 minutes but is very well made and suggests a strong start for a potential series or longer film.
The Resistance is set at the point in time where the Jews were starting to be persecuted in Belgium. The Belgian resistance – made up of Jews and Gentiles – seeks to thwart the Germans in their search for Aryan supremacy.
Writer/director Natalie Schwan’s film is brief and offers only a glimpse into the lives of these four people, but its potential is strong. It places two sisters, Eva (Ella-June Henrard) and Helene (Cielke Bessemans), with their employer Gérard (Michel Bauwens) and friend Pierre (Felix Meyer).
As they join forces to stop a transport heading to Auschwitz, the film takes on a tense pace aided by original music by Clark Rhee and sound design by Eli Cohn. From the scene where Eva realises the changes affecting those around her to the final act of defiance, The Resistance keeps you watching.
It is hard to decide whether this would be worth watching if the storyline were expanded. I would want to see something new and original that sets this idea apart from other wartime dramas about resistance.
At the moment, this short offers us intriguing characters, a premise that can be built on, and a promise of some conflict for Eva, who would probably rather go to parties and fine dining restaurants than spend time aiding her fellow human.
We hear a lot about the French Resistance, but less about the Belgian counterpart, which was much more fragmented. So there’s definitely a gap to be explored. The one true event in this film is the attack on the Twentieth convoy rail transport in 1943.
There are a host of remarkable stories to be told about these people. The Resistance is clearly just the starting point.