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Steal a Pencil for Me
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Metascore
69 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 12 Critics What's this?

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  • Summary: It's 1943, and Holland is under Nazi occupation. At a birthday party in Amsterdam, Jack, an unassuming accountant, meets Ina, a 20-year-old beauty from a wealthy family who instantly steals his heart. But Jack's pursuit of love will be complicated; he is poor and married to Manja, a flirtatious and mercurial spouse. When the Jews are being deported, husband, wife, and lover find themselves at the same concentration camp, living in the same barracks. When Jack's wife objects to the "girlfriend" in spite of their unhappy marriage, Jack and Ina resort to writing secret love letters, which sustain them throughout the horrible circumstances of the war. Steal a Pencil for Me is a compelling documentary feature film by Academy Award nominee Michele Ohayon about the power of love and the ability of humankind to rise above unimaginable suffering. (Seventh Art Releasing)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 12
  3. Negative: 1 out of 12
  1. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Leba Hertz
    100
    A terrific documentary about forbidden love in the most heinous of places.
  2. Variety
    Reviewed by: Joe Leydon
    60
    Fortunately, helmer Michele Ohayon ("Cowboy del Amor") treats her tricky subject matter with sufficient sensitivity to keep doc from ever seeming offensively flip or overly sentimental.
  3. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Andrea Gronvall
    30
    Although their love is undeniably a blessing, I was disconcerted watching the elderly couple smile and chuckle today as they recall their daily letters and secret meetings in the midst of such wide-scale death.

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