Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Connianatu How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

shantiviolin An intense and heartfelt movie, the story of Anita B immediately captures the attention of the viewer. Anita B is the story of a young girl who has just been rescued from the horrors of Auschwitz by the Red Cross. The movie opens showing a Red Cross van driving across the beautiful, but desolate and snowy mountains. Soon the complex and intriguing character Eli appears to escort Anita back to her new home. Anita's new life commences in the house of her only living relative: her aunt, Monika. Having lost both her parents in Auschwitz, Anita struggles to honor her aunt's request to avoid mentioning the horrors she witnessed. We even learn that Anita was loath to leave Auschwitz as her parents had not survived. Anita does not want to forget her parents and thus confides in little baby Roby about her past. The cinematography was beautiful and the story realistic. Through Anita, Eli and Monika, one comes to understand how much the Holocaust affected people's lives. Anita has a clear case of survivor's guilt, but wants to face the past. Eli and Monika are both frustrated with Anita's inability to forget. Both don't want to remember the horrible circumstances in which their loved ones died. In this way, this film shows us how much the past can influence who we are. Because of their experiences, Monika and Eli have turned into somewhat cold and selfish people. Yet this film also shows that they are not inherently like that, but rather are only trying to protect themselves from their own memories. They don't want to show how they really feel. Instead they have built a wall around them and are only trying to ensure their own survival. Monika's husband acts as the middle ground and tries to keep the peace. The romance between Anita and Eli is not simple. Learning later that Eli has his own dark past, the viewer begins to have compassion for him. At times he is kind and protects Anita, but all too often he dismisses Anita's pleas for him to stop his advances. At times he appears to be the heartless villain. At first afraid of Eli, Anita grows to love him and believes he feels the same about her. In the end Anita realizes what she wants and chooses to leave him. The development of Anita is especially captivating. At first a small, weak, lost girl, Anita transforms into a strong young woman, who takes hold of her future. She confronts those who try to stand in her way and demands respect. Despite her troubling past, in the end, Anita is able to move on. The only baggage she has is the future.

Annie Byers In the film, Anita is taken to live with her Aunt Monica and her family in Czechoslovakia where she spends her days trapped inside taking care of their son Robbie and telling him of her time in Auschwitz because no one else will listen. She soon falls in love with Eli and becomes pregnant, but when he pressures her to abort the child, she escapes to Jerusalem to start a new life for herself.The beauty of Anita B. derives from the remarkable detail brought to a simple and truthful storyline through incredible acting. Though most of the film simply shows Anita working through her daily routine, her emotions are worn for everyone to see and make her an extremely sympathetic character. Powell beautifully portrays the innocence of a young woman confused by her station in life and longing for some affection and security. Her superb acting is accompanied by that of Sheehan, who plays Eli. Throughout the story, it is difficult to make a decision about his character. At times he is lovable and sweet to Anita and in others he is so vile that it is impossible to understand how she could love him. One of the most heart wrenching moments in the film is when he tells Anita that the last thing he wants is to bring a child into that world. This complex moment truly shows the three dimensionality of his character. The death of his fiancée has destroyed his faith in the world and he cannot fathom knowingly bringing a child into the harsh society in which he is forced to live. The film is also incredibly well written and executed cinematically. The story clearly demonstrates that everyone at that time was effected by the Holocaust in some way or another and that there was no good way to deal with the aftermath of all that pain. Anita takes comfort in describing her experiences to Robbie as a sort of therapy, but Monica plagued with the guilt of a survivor, refuses to acknowledge that anything had even happened. She copes by blocking out the past instead of remembering and learning from it. Then there is David, Anita's confidante who follows the path of many young Jewish people at the time and decides to escape the death of his parents by going to Jerusalem, and of course Eli who has taken to pessimism and women in order to numb the pain of it all. Each character is faced with the challenge of trying to move on and the difficulty of that task is executed masterfully throughout the film. The film also transports the viewer into this time period through cinematic choices made to give it the look of a much older film. The sepia quality used not only ages the movie, but also creates an essence of darkness and despair that suits the time period.

ccyoke Directed by Roberto Faenza, Anita B. is an Italian film loosely based on the 2009 autobiographic novel "Quanta stella c'è nel cielo" by Edith Bruck. Anita B. paints a beautiful portrait of a young, orphaned Auschwitz survivor as she attempts to adjust to life in post-war Cszeckoslovaki with her Aunt Monika, Monika's husband Aron, their son Robby, and Aron's brother Eli. While Anita grieves the death of her parents, she must also cope with her aunt's resentment, a tumultuous love affair with Eli, and her struggle to find an individual to confide in. When Monika and Eli demand that Anita leave Auschwitz behind, Anita's only confidante is Monika's baby, Robby. Anita finds brief stability in a relationship, but when Anita befriends a young Jewish man named David and her relationship with Eli becomes unhealthy, Anita once must again escape a complex and stifling situation to pursue a more promising life.While Faenza's film succeeds in several areas, not the least of which is the film's beautiful cinematography, the film's greatest strength lies in the development of its characters. Particularly compelling is the relationship between Anita and Eli, played by Eline Powell and Robert Sheehan respectively. Their blossoming affair delves into uncertainty as the upbeat and charming Eli succumbs to his anger. The complexity of Eli's character development is significant in that Faenza is careful not to portray any one villain; in other words, Eli himself is a victim of the war and of the Holocaust, he too carrying his own burden and traumas. Thus, Powell and Sheehan, whose performances are equally impressive, capture the spirit of young survivors each riddled with their own anxieties, memories, and troubles: a combination of which proves to be unhealthy for both parties, especially Anita. This complexity likewise manifests itself in the character of Monika, Anita's aunt. Often cold and dismissive, Monika's own struggle to cope with her brother's death results in a well-intentioned yet notably strained relationship with her niece. Faenza not only captures the nuances of complex relationships, but he also portrays the characters struggling with their own identities. In particular, Anita must suppress her identity as a Jewish Hungarian in order to survive; in fact, most of Faenza's characters must grapple with what it means to be Jewish in this new, still hostile and anti Semitic post-Holocaust environment.Faenza's approach to character development more than pays off; this film in its entirety is cinematographically breathtaking, emotionally compelling, sincere, and hopeful in a way that does not feel cliché. The film captures the complexities, nuances, and hardships that must have accompanied survivors of the Holocaust. Though Faenza's characters, especially Anita, are faced with adversity even after the war's conclusion, they tackle them with a raw honesty that is both heartbreaking and hopeful. Thus, the film does less to capture to the horror and atrocities of the 1940's, and does more to pay homage to those who remarkably lived and endured.

Brian Plachinski Wow, I have no idea what the rest of you saw, but I gotta agree with enrico on this one. I saw this movie when I was visiting my girlfriend during her study-abroad program in Rome. We saw it together, and after the movie ended, both had the same reaction: "...eh" Yea, the picture is, generally, 'pretty.' But honestly, the plot moves slowly, it plods through -- I cannot stress how much plodding goes on... it's boring uneventful scene after boring uneventful scene, two hours of my life that i'll never get back -- until, MAGICALLY everything resolves itself. The protagonist is an overly simplistic, naive girl -- which makes sense, I guess, since it seems like this movie was written with an audience of overly simplistic, naive girls in mind. So. Thumbs down. It's mostly the script, guys. The combination of formulaic characters AND unfortunately slow plot.