Virtual Reality Film Allows Viewers to Be ‘Immersed’ in Anne Frank’s Attic

A new virtual reality film promises to take viewers inside the attic where a young Anne Frank hid from the Nazis in Amsterdam in 1942.

Anne, from writer-director Danny Abrahms, will allow those with virtual reality headsets to immerse themselves in the secret annex that sheltered Frank and other members of her family during World War II. According to a statement from the filmmakers, the film will give viewers the ability to “feel like they are there” by using “photorealistic visual fidelity” to recreate the attic where a teenage Frank penned her infamous diary.

Frank is believed to have perished in a concentration camp in 1945. Her diary, originally published with the title The Diary of a Young Girl, has been the basis of several plays and films, including the 1955 play The Diary of Anne Frank and the 2001 film Anne Frank: The Whole Story.

“Anne Frank’s story has kept the memory of the Holocaust alive and promoted tolerance for generations,” Abrahms said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter. “We are deeply committed to sharing Anne’s experience using cutting-edge modes of storytelling so that her story can live on and reach as many young people in the world as possible.”

“To experience this film will be to immerse oneself into a place and time, to move about a room, amongst the people, and sense the moment in a way never possible before [virtual reality],” Abrahms added.

The film will be produced by Judd Hirsch, who previously worked on the virtual reality short film First, a recreation of the Wright brothers’ infamous first airplane flight.

According to the Guardian, Anne will be the second virtual reality film to recreate the attic in which Frank hid; last year, the Anne Frank Foundation reportedly created a 10-minute VR film for the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam for visitors with disabilities who are unable to take the tour.

Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum