Misjel Vermeiren

This film deals with the experiences of children in concentration camps. The more so because it discloses, above all, circumstances that have hitherto been almost completely untold, namely the fate of children in the camps under the Japanese occupation during World War II. It's a meeting between two women who, when children, were prisoners in concentration camps. One of them was deported to Auschwitz when she was 13 and remained there for two years; the other was interned in a Japanese camp in Indonesia when she was 11 and stayed there for more than three years. The two women talk, each reliving their experiences through a child's heart and soul.

Prokofiev's enchantingly surreal commedia dell’arte masterwork is turned into a spectacular triumph of total theatre in this vital production from the Amsterdam Muziektheater. De Nederlandse Opera has chosen to use the more flexible French libretto of the 1921 premiere, a pertinent choice which has the advantage of accentuating the aesthetic common ground shared by Prokofiev and Les Six. Stéphane Denève's brilliant musical direction inspires outstanding performances from the soloists and the superb Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, enhanced by the smart, blockbusting staging of Laurent Pelly and the exquisite sets of Chantal Thomas, which propel this feverish fable to great heights.