Directed by: Steve McQueen
Distributed by: A24
Written by Michael Clawson
90/100
Steve McQueen’s cinematic output has made its way into the world through a variety of modes of exhibition. Well before he achieved broad recognition as a feature director with films like “Hunger,” “Shame,” and the Best Picture Oscar-winning “12 Years a Slave,” he spent the ‘90s making experimental shorts that lived in the white cube of art galleries rather than the black box of movie theaters. More recently, the five features in his “Small Axe” anthology series were released simultaneously on Prime Video after festival showings. His oeuvre encompasses little-seen avant-garde projects and more commercial endeavors, and where his work has been programmed reflects that.
“Occupied City” is unique in that it has made its way into a small number of movie theaters, but its form alludes to McQueen’s origins in the world of experimental film. A documentary adaptation of “Atlas of an Occupied City (Amsterdam 1940-1945),” a non-fiction book by McQueen’s wife, Bianca Stigter, “Occupied City” is essentially two films in one, each offering a portrait of the city of Amsterdam at distinct moments in time. Visually, we’re granted a sweeping view of the city during the pandemic years. Over the film’s four-plus hours, McQueen turns his camera towards houses, institutions, public spaces, and every urban nook and cranny in between, crafting astonishingly beautiful images of a place as it’s emptied by lockdown orders, stirred by protests, and gradually returned to normalcy. A second film comes through the film’s narration, which operates like a tour guide for McQueen’s camera. The narration tells of the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam during World War II, such that for every architectural sight we see, we’re matter-of-factly told of its historical significance. For instance, as the film begins, we see the inside of an ordinary, modern-day woman’s home. As she prepares a meal in her kitchen, the camera observes her stepping into her cellar for ingredients. The narration conjures a different picture, explaining how the cellar served as a hiding place for Jewish people fearing for their lives during the Holocaust.
Together, “Occupied City’s” sound and image form a bridge between history and the present, between then and now, the effect of which is sobering and startling. Following a nonlinear path through its historical material, it resembles the experience of exploring a city map: we jump from location to location, one anecdote immediately following another, many deeply chilling and others inspiring. The structure evokes the middle third of Roberto Bolano’s novel “2666,” in which the author journalistically recounts a staggering number of violent crimes for pages on end. Weight accumulates as the stories unfold in succession. Following a fifteen-minute intermission, the movie picks up exactly where it left off, diving back into tales of persecution and resistance as we continue our visual trek through Amsterdam today. As a panorama of a place at two points in time, the film’s scope and detail is monumental.
Gallery, streaming, museum, or movie theater – which venue would serve “Occupied City” best? It’s not a great question, because it doesn’t have to play in only one of the above. But the value of witnessing this film in a single sitting is worth considering, and that’s something a museum or streaming would not be conducive to. Consider a bravura sequence not long before the film’s intermission, where McQueen’s camera unexpectedly takes flight and glides up and down Amsterdam’s streets, music overtaking the narration. It’s a radical break in the film’s formal composure, and its effect relies on you having already visited countless addresses at a steady and rhythmic clip. To experience the movie in full is to be absorbed by its thoroughness. The vivid and expansive portraiture afforded by its scale is profound, and poses rewards to those who find “Occupied City” in a movie theater.
“Occupied City” Trailer
Michael Clawson is a member of the Seattle Film Critic Society you can follow his passion for film on Letterboxd.