Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation

The diary of Annelies Marie Frank (1929–45) has been translated into more than 60 languages and is required reading for millions of students. Her musings on her burgeoning adolescence in hiding from the Nazis are at once immediately recognizable and absolutely tragic. This graphic adaptation, the first to be authorized by the Anne Frank Foundation, from Folman and Polonsky, who previously collaborated on the animated film Waltz with Bashir, stays true to the indomitable spirit of Frank's words while bringing fresh eyes to her circumscribed existence. Anne is drawn as cute and expressive (picture any smirking photograph of her on a book cover), while her housemates are seen through critical eyes, often as less than pleasant animals. Visions of her carefree past, bad (and very real) dreams of Nazi persecution, and hallucinatory moments staring down questionable foodstuffs emphasize the realities of both her interior and external world.