Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Lily James, Matthew Goode, Jessica Brown Findlay, Michiel Huisman, Katherine Parkinson, Tom Courtenay, Glen Powell, Penelope Wilton, Bronagh Gallagher, Dilyana Bouklieva, Kit Connor, Marek Oravec, Steve Carroll, Nicola Pasetti, Andy Gathergood, Emily Patrick, Amil Freeman, Tom Owen.

The idyllic can hold a person’s mind entranced, the beauty of the location a veritable feast for the soul and the easy going nature of the locals, disarming, reassuring and pleasurable; yet in any place which holds the attention of the visitor, there is always the unspoken horrors that may have occurred, that may be pushed down so far into the consciousness that resurrect them is more painful than anyone from the outside can believe.

The Second World War and the Nazi occupation of most of Western Europe still scars the landscapes of all it touched, from the photographs of Adolf Hitler looking down upon the sprawling streets of sophisticated Paris from upon the hill of Mont Matre, the memories of the millions dead at the hands of sadists, informers and petty grudge revenge seekers, and through to the bomb damaged remains, on both sides, the pill boxes that line the coast of France as a permanent reminder and the ghosts of closest the Nazi regime came to invading the British Isles. It is a scar, deep and forever it seems doomed never to heal properly, in the Channel Islands, where the people of Guernsey, Jersey, Sark, Herm and Alderney were driven to the near brink of starvation by their Nazi rulers, where the hope of rescue seemed as damned as it did in Holland, where even now that time has never been truly been forgotten.

In Mike Newell’s The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society, what comes across is the extraordinary depth of courage that the people of the Channel Islands were expected to raise up for themselves, mentally cut off from mainland Britain as well as by distance, survival was the only option and in that battle to endure the thought of everlasting rule by an occupied force, the measure of making do, of love that was frowned upon, even openly despised and warned against, survival was a must, but never at the expense of your own values, worth and belief.

In Lily James, Jessica Brown Findlay, Bronagh Gallagher, Tom Courtney and the exceptional Penelope Wilton’s performances, that particular time and the aftermath of the occupation was brought very much home to the cinema goer. Those that have either called the Channel Islands a home, those that have studied the psychological effects of the occupation on the islanders or even those who have poured over photographs of British policemen standing and taking orders from German soldiers and thought in horror of what the Nazi regime would have done to Britain, this beautiful and endearing film is worth seeing, of remembering how love in the end conquers hate.

A film, that whilst not filmed in the island of Guernsey, will do wonders for tourism and better understanding in which the U.K. Government seems to forget was one of the aims and outcomes of beating the tyrannical Nazi regime, a place where Britain meets Europe and shakes hands; but which does not forget the scars caused by a mad man’s dream.

Ian D. Hall