Israeli director Ari Folman, the maker of ‘Waltz With Bashir’ — one of the most successful adult animated films of all time, is back. This time, he has brought the life of Anne Frank on the big screen. Anne Frank was one of the most popular Holocaust victims, who gained worldwide fame posthumously after her book ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’ was published.

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‘Where is Anne Frank’ debuted at the Cannes Film Festival this week. It is another beautifully drawn cartoon and Folman’s first to be aimed at younger audiences.

Why Folman chose to make a movie on Anne Frank

His last outing, the adult animated film ‘The Congress’, didn’t work at the box office. 

“I hassled so many people, raised $10 million, had hundreds of animators, and then no one saw the movie!” Folman told news agency AFP in an interview.

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“I thought: no more animation for adults. If you want to deal with these incredibly tough productions, it should be for a wide audience, which means a family movie,” Folman said.

The director added that it helps that ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ is one of the most beloved and important books of the 20th century.

About ‘Where is Anne Frank’

The film traces follows Kitty, Anne Frank’s imaginary friend from her diary. The movie jumps between the present day and the real-life story of Anne and her family hiding from the Nazis in occupied Amsterdam.

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‘Where is Anne Frank’ also tries to move beyond the iconic image of the famous writer, the director said.

“She’s an icon but more than that, she was a teenager — isolated, going through adolescence, funny, wicked as hell, a great observer of the adults, seeing everyone’s faults, attacking them. She was great fun. I thought we should see all aspects of her character,” said Folman.

Took eight years

It took eight years for Folman to make the film.

“My youngest daughter was here at the screening, she’s 14. She told me she can’t remember life without Anne Frank. She was six when I started,” he said.

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And in those eight years, Anne “became part of my life in a way that I can’t even explain,” he said.

About his next project

Folman told AFP that he will need some serious brainpower to take on another animated project.

“For the next film, I’m looking for a mathematician, or a chess player — I’m not joking — to do the calculations,” Folman said.

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This is because an animated film consists of several moving parts.

‘Where is Anne Frank’ had had 1,100 shots and each one of them had to do through 11 different stages, shared between 12 studios in different countries.

“Each delay impacts every part of the chain,” said Folman, who added that, “If you miss something, you are half-a-million dollars short. No one can calculate it.”

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“My dream is an alien machine which can see all 12,000 elements, each change happening in every studio, how long it takes and how we can fix it,” Folman said.

“I couldn’t find one. Maybe Kasparov can do it!” he added.