‘Etty’

Based on her celebrated diaries (An Interrupted Life), Etty tells the story of Etty Hillesum, a 27-year-old, free, brilliant, and passionate woman who, in occupied Amsterdam during World War II, embarks on an intense emotional and spiritual journey. At the center of this search lies her turbulent love – and therapy – relationship with psychochirologist Julius Spier, the catalyst for a radical inner transformation that deepens as the threat against her as a Jewish woman intensifies.

Much more than a period adaptation, Etty is a radical audiovisual proposal conceived by visionary Hagai Levi (Scenes from a Marriage, In Treatment). Steering clear of conventional historical drama, it adopts a contemporary, minimalist, and deliberately anachronistic aesthetic that establishes a disturbing dialogue between the turmoil of 1941–1943 and the present. Driven by a dazzling performance by newcomer Julia Windischbauer alongside Sebastian Koch (The Lives of Others), Etty explores a resistance that is not merely political, but deeply intimate and interior, raising a question of utmost urgency: how to cultivate beauty and hope in a world that seems to have lost its meaning?