FANNY’S JOURNEY – St. Louis Jewish Film Festival – film review

Sunday, June 4 at 7 PM at Plaza Frontenac Cinema

– By Cate Marquis –

FANNY’S JOURNEY is a compelling true-story-inspired historical drama about a 13-year-old girl who leads a group of 11 children to safety as they flee the advancing Nazis in World War II France. Directed by Loila Doillon, it is a suspenseful tale based on the true story of Fanny Ben-Ami. This handsome, well-made and well-acted drama id one of this year’s St. Louis Jewish Film Festival’s best.

After the arrest of their father in German-occupied Paris, Fanny (Léonie Souchaud) and her younger sisters Erika (Fantine Harduin) and Georgette (Juliane Lepoureau) are sent by their mother to a children’s boarding school in rural southeast France. The younger girls, particularly clingy Erika, stay close to their older sister but Fanny is clearly very much still a child herself, with a penchant for climbing trees but a bit of a strong-willed streak. The school is in an area under the control of the Vichy French government rather than the Nazis, and for a while it seems they will avoid Nazi attention there. But when the headmistress gets word that the Nazis are extending their occupation, she sends the Jewish children to various safe havens in an Italian-occupied part of France.

READ THE FULL REVIEW AT THE ST.  LOUIS JEWISH LIGHT:

http://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2017/06/fannys-journey-jewish-film-festival-review/