“It’s not cruel or horrible, but rather, has many positive aspects despite all the melancholy through the fact that Anna and her family lose their home, their prosperity and their native language because of a sudden change in politics.” The filmmaker liked the fact that the story was told from the point of view of a 9-year-old. “Children do not need to be afraid of this story,” she said. Kerr, who died in May, said that “she kept mostly positive memories of her years in Switzerland and Paris for her and her brother, it felt like an adventure,” Link pointed out. That worked well her book has since sold over a million copies.

She felt strongly about allowing young readers to learn about the era. Kerr wrote her book expressly for children, telling the story through the perspective of a child. Judith Kerr used the left-behind pink rabbit as a literary metaphor for the loss of her home and leaving behind her childhood memories in difficult times.Ĭaroline Link recalls being surprised by the lightness of the story when she read the novel in her youth: “It was a story about expulsion and escape from Nazi Germany, and yet the tone was optimistic, almost carefree.” A book - and now a film - about National Socialism, anti-Semitism and forced exile with an “optimistic tone” - is that even possible? They quickly decide to flee to Switzerland, leaving with only with a few suitcases. The film then follows the family’s exile through Europe. Her father is a renowned journalist who has published articles criticizing Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.Īnna’s father is also aware that the family is in danger because they are Jewish.

Anna lives with her parents (played by Carla Juri and Oliver Masucci) and her older brother (Marinus Hohmann) in Berlin. The story takes off just before Germany’s elections of March 1933, which are to bring the Nazis to power. 1 hit comedy of the year, The Boy Needs Some Fresh Air, also titled All About Me.Īlso Read: A Project to Restore Namibia’s Forgotten Resistance Music The film was directed by Caroline Link, best-known for her Oscar-winning film, Nowhere in Africa (2001). When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit celebrated its world premiere in Berlin on Sunday, and will be released throughout Germany on December 26. The novel had already been adapted into a German TV movie in 1978 now, almost half a century later, a new adaptation has been made for the big screen.

It was originally published in English, and came out two years later in German, translated by Annemarie Böll, the wife of Nobel laureate Heinrich Böll. A still from the movie, Als Hitler Das Rosa Kaninchen Stahl.

When hitler stole