• A glimmer of hope is available this Tuesday on Disney+.
  • This miniseries traces the journey of Miep Gies, the woman who helped Anne Frank's family hide during World War II in Amsterdam.
  • A little-known story that sheds new light on The Diary of Anne Frank.

A true and unknown story! If we all know the tragic fate of Anne Frank thanks to her diary, few are those who know the story of the one who tried to save her. A glimmer of hope, available this Tuesday on Disney+, traces the journey of Miep Gies (Bel Powley, seen on The Morning Show), a carefree and strong-willed young secretary who did not hesitate for a moment when her boss, Otto Frank (Liev Schreiber, seen in Ray Donovan), asked her to hide her family during the Second World War in Amsterdam.


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For two years, Miep, her husband, Jan (Joe Cole, seen in Peaky Blinders), as brave as he is devoted, and other ordinary heroes, have watched over the Frank, van Pels and Pfeffer families, who have taken refuge in a secret annex of Otto's company, Opekta.

A well-known story told from a new perspective

"I've always been interested in Anne Frank's story, but also Miep Gies' story. I had seen in the 1990s the documentary Anne Frank remembered based on Miep's autobiography. I wanted to dig deeper into the Franks, the van Pels, the Pfeffers that we only really know through the eyes of a 13-year-old girl. How do you see these people in a new light? " explains the co-creator and writer of the miniseries, Tony Phelan, whom 20 Minutes met at CanneSeries.

"I didn't know anything about Miep and Jan, not even their names, but I knew The Diary of Anne Frank. I was immediately interested in the idea of playing Miep. As a Jew, I have special ties to this part of the story. Reading the script, I was very excited by Tony Phelan and Joan Rater's view of this period and their decidedly modern and accessible tone," says Bel Powley.

A story of coming-of-age

"People think they know Anne Frank's story, that she was a victim of Nazism and that she had a diary, but don't really pay attention to human history. Being interested in Miep allowed us to talk about the life of a young woman at the time through a little-known character, "says the executive producer of the miniseries, Susanna Fogel.

The story of A Glimmer of Hope begins well before the war, when Miep Gies, in her twenties, is Otto Frank's secretary. "The idea was to tell the story of this young woman's coming of age, in relation to Anne Frank's very famous transition to adulthood. I also wanted to understand why Miep had agreed to hide them. What made her say "yes" when so many others said "no"? What made her special? " adds Tony Phelan.

A story of heartbreaking friendship

"Otto and Miep had a really special and very modern relationship. It wasn't common at the time for a young woman to really be friends with a man who was twenty years older than her," Powley said. "They engaged in this relationship as an employer and employee, but shared a lot in common. They were both immigrants and spoke German. The Franks and their friends used Miep and Jan, her husband, to understand the customs and way of life in the Netherlands. When Miep and Jan agreed to hide them, they became members of their family," says Tony Phelan.

After their arrest, Miep found Anne Frank's diary and kept it for publication, in agreement with Otto, the girl's father, to serve as a testament to future generations. "After the war, Otto moved in with Jan and Miep," says the actress. "The miniseries is about how Otto became something of a surrogate father for Miep. The fact that Miep kept Anne's diary was an extraordinary gift to him. He would later say that reading this diary was like watching Anne grow up," adds the screenwriter.

A love story during the interwar period

"There is a sense of responsibility, not only for Miep, but also for the Franks, for Amsterdam and the resistance. In terms of character building, it's the same process as for a fictional character, but you have to respect your research and for history," says Powley, who has read Miep's autobiography several times and visited Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam to prepare for the role.

The actress was able to count on the expertise of the creators of the series, Tony Phelan and Joan Rater: "They conducted research for five years. All the questions we had, we could ask these traveling historians! Joe Cole, who plays Miep's husband, Jan, told us extraordinary anecdotes every day, acts of heroism. We could talk for hours between takes. »

"Miep is awesome, incredibly confident and candid. It was discovered in 1933 well before the start of the war. She is a girl who has fun, likes to go out with her friends and dance. She also loves fashion and her husband. She's an ordinary young woman," says Bel Powley. "She was playful and funny and had a fascinating, complex and passionate relationship. All this coexists with the great political story we tell," says Susanna Fogel.

A story of ordinary heroes

"At first, Jan is a kind of introvert, a bit of a nerd, a real bookworm. He and Miep will grow together through the great difficulties and challenges they face. This ordinary guy is going to blossom and become a kind of superhero," says Joe Cole.

Miep and Jan will agree without hesitation to protect the Franks and their friends hidden in the annex while the Nazis have invaded the Netherlands. "I guess it comes from his origins. Miep was born in Vienna, Austria, her childhood was marked by famine after World War I, and she was sent to Amsterdam. The family that took her in at the age of 9 already had five children and assumed: "When there are seven, there is always one more," says Bel Powley.

"She will never regret her decision, but what she agreed to do turned out to be more complicated than she thought when she committed. Sometimes she was really tired and didn't feel like going to get a third chicken for the annex," adds Susanna Fogel.

The title A Glimmer of Hope comes from a quote from Miep Gies who said "a secretary or a teenage girl can be a beacon of hope in the dark. She didn't like people calling her a heroine and said, "I'm like everyone else. I just made these little decisions and everyone is capable of doing it." »

An important story to learn from

"I hope this show makes people wonder what they would have done in his place, because this is really an ordinary couple who found themselves in extraordinary circumstances and chose to do the right thing. We can all learn from this," Powley said.

This theme is still "relevant today, we can decide to act or disengage and distract ourselves with our smartphones or whatever. But I think the world needs our help," Fogel said.

"We live in a time when people feel threatened by this story. The diary of Anne Frank is banned in some places in the United States. Questions of nationalism and anti-Semitism do not arise. They are there, simply there, "laments Tony Phelan, who hopes to "make this story known to a whole new generation" thanks to Disney +. Susanna Fogel concludes: "We need more stories like this, to be honest."

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