For those who grew up with the Diary of Anne Frank as required reading, you might consider yourself fairly familiar with her and her family’s tragic tale as they were discovered in hiding and sent to camps where all but Otto, the family patriarch, perished. However National Geographic’s new show ‘A Small Light’ looks at the familiar story of Anne Frank through the broader lens of her and her family’s protectors, chiefly Miep, a young, determined employee of Otto Frank, along with Miep’s husband Jan, Miep’s co-workers, and of course Anne, the Frank family, and those who lived in hiding alongside the Frank’s including the Van Pels and Fritz Pfeffer. What results is an incredibly powerful tale about sacrifice in the most trying of times, and how, in the words of Miep “…even an ordinary secretary or a housewife or a teenager can, within their own small ways, turn on a small light in a dark room.”
Miep Gies, played by Bel Powley, chats with Otto Frank, played by Liev Schreiber in A SMALL LIGHT. (Photo credit: National Geographic for Disney/Dusan Martincek)
‘A Small Light’ begins before the Frank family are in hiding with Miep, and the show portrays a life that’s largely idyllic even as war threatens on the horizon. Miep, a transplant from Austria herself, begins the series determined to get a job and she finds one working for Otto Frank at his pectin and spice company Opekta. She becomes friends with the Franks, and also finds love with a Dutchman named Jan, and the two begin a burgeoning relationship. However as we know all well not stay well, and indeed as the war becomes reality, the Franks realize all too late the real threat posed to them by the Nazis, and Miep chooses to save them by hiding them away.
This is familiar territory; however, what we see in ‘A Small Light’, which is dramatized as we will never know precise conversations or some actions, shows how tough daily life was for all, and the great extents Miep, Jan, and the family’s in hiding, go to to survive day to day. ‘A Small Light’ is not pure misery porn as some might expect, as we are reminded of small happy moments that help the family and Miep and Jan try to find their own small light. This is a difficult balance to strike when writing the story; however, the creators did an excellent job from start to finish of helping us truly appreciate to at least a small degree, for however could we truly know, the struggles in these times.
Jan and Miep Gies, played by Joe Cole and Bel Powley, talk in the bathtub in A SMALL LIGHT. (Photo credit: National Geographic for Disney/Dusan Martincek)
Likewise the superb acting from all, in particular Bel Powley, Joe Cole, and Liev Schreiber – all worth of Emmy nominations, further brought us into this world by portraying so well their humanity at all times through the good times and importantly through the worst. Schreiber in particular, despite my familiarity with him, truly transformed in this role, and portrayed so perfectly Otto, a man who tried to be brave for his family in all times, despite these awful circumstances. Powley, who I was not familiar with, was an absolute standout as well, and really showcased every range of emotion one could have in a lifetime in her performance. Powley had to play a real life woman whose courage and heroism cannot be overstated, and to rise to that challenge and deftly convey her to us is such a feat of acting.
‘A Small Light’ is such a worthy endeavor at capturing the tragic story of the Franks, while also conveying a sliver of the many horrors of the Holocaust – that should never be forgotten – that truly it should be required viewing as well. For though humanity always seems to find ways into the darkness, may this show always remind us that there are those out there like Miep – and let us hope we can be one of them – who turn on that small light for those who need it most.
