20 years in the making, this stunning, sexy epic – BLACK BOOK – is the highly anticipated WWII thriller from the internationally acclaimed, blockbuster director Paul Verhoeven. Following on from a spectacular body of work that includes BASIC INSTINCT, STARSHIP TROOPERS, HOLLOW MAN, ROBOCOP, TOTAL RECALL and SOLDIER OF ORANGE, Verhoeven is once again helming a strong female lead… September 1944 – Rachel Steinn (CARICE VAN HOUTEN), a beautiful young and feisty Jewish revue star, has fled Nazi Germany and gone into hiding in the Netherlands. She meets a sailor who offers her refuge at his parents’ house, but they are tipped off by resistance fighter Van Gein that their hideaway is no longer safe. He offers to smuggle her by boat into safe Allied territory with a group of wealthy Jews. Sensing this is her only option, Rachel gathers all her valuables and braves the escape. Just as the boat is about to leave, she discovers her family is on it too. But tragedy strikes when a Nazi patrol intercepts their boat, ruthlessly killing everybody. In the ensuing massacre, Rachel manages to escape, but not before she has witnessed the brutal murder of her family and the plundering of the valuables by fierce Nazi officer Franken and his comrades. With the help of a few trustworthy Dutchmen, Rachel joins the Resistance, where she is assigned a new identity as the blonde Ellis de Vries. In no time she uses her seductive charm on the senior German officer Müntze. Captivated by her, Muntze escorts Ellis through all checkpoints , unaware that he is helping her smuggle surveillance equipment into The Hague. Other members of the Resistance don’t have the same luck and are captured. One of them is Tim, the son of resistance leader Kuipers. Kuipers asks Ellis to start an affair with Muntze to find a way to free his son. While listening in to the Germans with a bugging device that Ellis has planted in the office of the Sicherheits Dienst, they discover that Ellis’ family and the whole Jewish group were not murdered by chance but were led into a trap by Van Gein and Franken so they could plunder their dead bodies. A new trap is set up again so Ellis wants to execute Van Gein before he kills more helpless Jewish refugees. Kuipers refuses as killing Van Gein would lead to German retaliation: they would execute captured resistance fighters. Together with Hans a loyal but tough member of the resistance Ellis decides however to take matters into their own hands and confronts Van Gein. In the ensuing shootout Van Gein ends up dead. Franken is furious that his special agent has been eliminated and plans to execute an even larger group resistance fighters including Kuiper’s son Tim. To redeem himself Hans decides to rescue the prisoners with the help of Ellis. The attempted breakout backfires miserably as they have been betrayed and Franken has found out about the rescue operation and the bugging device. While Ellis sings on stage during a celebration for Hitler’s birthday almost all of the rescue team including the prisoners are killed and only Hans barely manages to escape. Franken then sets up Ellis by congratulating her for helping setting the trap making sure his praise can be heard over the transmitter. Kuipers listens in and vows revenge- to find Ellis after the war and to have her executed. Ellis is put in prison but Muntze finds a way to free her. Going into hiding they wait liberation with not just the Germans , but the resistance on their tails as well………meanwhile Ellis still tries to take revenge on the traitor who was responsible for killing her whole family.
Black Book is an epic thriller of great courage and fierce emotion -played out against the dying explosive months of WW2.
