Fanny's Journey (original title: Le Voyage de Fanny) is a 2016 French-Belgian children's war drama film co-written and directed by Lola Doillon. The film is inspired by an autobiographical book by Fanny Ben Ami.
Film Review: ‘Fanny’s Journey’
A group of Jewish youngsters flees Nazi-occupied France in this fact-inspired WWII drama, the third feature from director Lola Doillon.
A group of Jewish youngsters flees Nazi-occupied France in the inspired-by-fact WWII drama “Fanny’s Journey,” the third feature from director Lola Doillon (“In Your Hands,” “Just About Love”). The film is a handsome, compelling period piece that deftly portrays events through the eyes of its young protagonists. Nevertheless, despite committed performances from the small fry and one of spirited conviction from Cecile de France as the resourceful school mistress trying to spirit them to Switzerland, the end result comes off rather like the equivalent of old-fashioned, young adult fiction; everything really bad happens off-screen. Moreover, a surfeit of forced lyricism undermines the tale’s natural poignancy, signaling that Jewish festival slots and ancillary are more likely than theatrical play offshore.
