Wait for a better story than this

Waiting For Anya (M, 109 mins) Directed by Ben Cookson Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett

Waiting For Anya isa drama, set in rural France in 1942.

The Anya we are waiting for is the missing daughter of local bloke Benjamin. He has taken to sitting in the woods every day, hoping that the daughter he loaded onto a bus to escape the Germans will one day come home. But as this is wartime, the chances seem slim.

So Benjamin and his mother, played by Anjelica Huston with the exact brand of weaponised haughtiness she brings to every role she deigns to accept, are spending their war stealthily leading more children over the nearby mountains and into the comparative safety of Spain.

They are aided in this by a couple of plucky young ’uns. One of whom, Jo, is now narrating the film as an old man.

All of which sounds like the basis of a watchable and worthy yarn, and maybe a decent introduction to the horrors of the Holocaust for a school-age audience. And, perhaps, Waiting For Anya might find a place for itself as just that. But I doubt it.

Waiting For Anya is not a bad film, exactly. But it is a far too easy one to be cynical about.

Except for the fact that it is based on a novel by Michael Morpurgo, who also wrote War Horse, I really don’t understand why this film exists. As a part of the overloaded canon of kids-in-perilin-wartime, it has nothing new, or even particularly credible, to say.

In fact, the apparent ease with which the locals evade the German occupiers, especially when performed in ‘‘French accent’’, is so unfortunately reminiscent of

’Allo ’Allo! I found myself tuning out for long moments while I tried not to laugh. Although, to be fair, no-one else seemed to be having this problem. So either I have a terrible sense of humour, or I watch too many films. Or both.

Waiting For Anya is an uninquisitive, vaguely exploitative

drama with not much to say and a resolutely uninteresting way of not saying it.

Bizarrely, director Ben Cookson has only one other feature on his CV; an alleged comedy called Almost Married, which I remember as a wretched slog in search of a joke back in 2014.

Quite how making that film – about a man who contracts an STD from a sex worker and then has to avoid passing it on to his fiancee – qualified Cookson to make this one, is just one of many imponderables about Waiting For Anya.

Sometimes, it’s best not to think about these things too hard. Just as, sometimes it’s best to keep your money in your pocket, and wait for a better film to come out. Unlike Anya’s dad, you shouldn’t have to wait for long.