Jon Blair's film is effective in placing Anne's story firmly in its twentieth century context. This is not just her life in Holland and her death in a Nazi concentration camp, but the impact the diary has had in the half-century since.

The film uses the major conventions of docu­mentary—interviews with people who knew her, archive footage filming today on relevant loca­tions including the Anne Frank house in Amster­dam. Its impact comes from the freshness of the material that has been incorporated.

Most striking is the range of new material, including a snippet of Anne Frank on film, and postcards written by her father Otto while still searching for her after the war, and only re-dis­covered in May 1994.

One of the participants is a woman who worked in the building that was the hiding place of the Frank family, and who describes the events surrounding the family's discovery by the Gestapo.

Much of the film in fact covers events outside the scope of Anne's diary, including attempts by right-wing groups to discredit it. The range of the film, and its direct clear approach to its material effectively builds a strong, emotional impact.