​Logline​

A leader of a child Resistance cell in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam faces revolt at the hands of a 15 year old anti-Semite girl. What price will her ambition be?

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Synopsis

Rotterdam in the winter of 1944-45 - Berthe, a mischling child and Resistance worker is dancing for a soldier at a checkpoint in order to distract him whilst an adult Resistance worker, accompanied by a Hanna, a five year old and another Resistance worker, attempt to get across the border with a stash of weapons in a pram. The soldier spots the woman and shouts for her to halt, but then shoots her as she shoots him back. Because the soldier’s wound is not mortal, Berthe finishes him off with a coup de grace to his jugular. That night, at SS Headquarters, for revenge, a purge is ordered by an SS Officer with the assembled drunken soldiers ordered to kill 100 local people, especially children. Whilst this massacre is happening, a small group of children from the same Resistance cell reach their hiding place and stepping inside call out for Berthe. The leader of the cell, Isaac, a Jewish boy, tells the others, Isa, Veerle and Maike to wait outside whilst he tries to reassure her. Isa is. apart from her Resistance work is a staunch Anti-Semite who has begun to show her true colours and from now on in starts to impose her own will on the group. Although she is not the oldest member, she maintains that she is the strongest and has murdered countless Nazis by setting a honey trap with her sister, Veerle. However, she also believes all the Dutch people’s problems stem from the Jews. She is now rude to Isaac, Berthe and the rest of the group present, and openly questions Isaac’s way of running the cell. Over the next few days other children and teenagers arrive, Monika ,a friend of Isaac and Anna and Miriam, newly orphaned sisters.

Isa is upset because these are kids she does not know that she has no control over and she fears they may be Nazi infiltrators and is amazed that Isaac seems unworried by their presence or that of the young child Hanna, struck dumb by her experience at the checkpoint and who was brought to the cellar by Berthe.

 

A further complication arrives in the shape of Sarah, a liaison worker between the adult and child Resistors. She is there to discuss Isa with Isaac, as the leadership is concerned about her suitability to be in the Resistance at all. Isa is certain that Sarah has it in for her and in fact sometime later Monika finds Sarah’s body and it is assumed that Isa is the murderer.

 

It transpires that Isa has been negotiating for support in her attempted coup for the leadership of the cell, with a member of the partisans, a Spanish Civil War refugee, called Salvia, who is pragmatic and a real fighter. Isa initially swears that Salvia approached her but it later comes out that that is not the case. Salvia has a meeting with Isaac which at first is frosty, but after a few arguments between various members of the cell, Isaac is persuaded especially by Isa and her two group friends Frieda and Marta, to go out on a real mission, something that is extremely dangerous for  him.

 

As the rest of the cell waits fretfully in the cellar, the group, led by Salvia go out but are ambushed by a Nazi unit and in the confusion Isa takes an opportunity to kill Isaac and Salvia kills Isa in reprisal. The rest of the group returns to the hideout and Salvia explains why she had to do what she did. She is attacked by Veerle who then runs away to find her sister’s body. The cell decides to say Kaddish for Isaac and then gather their things to go with Salvia. Berthe asks where Hanna is, so Anna, goes to look for her and finds she has committed suicide, so once more Kaddish is said for her, before they all go off to safety, something Isaac had always striven for​​​​

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​AVAILABLE TO OPTION: T

Screenplay. Pitch Deck. 

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