A really chilling ‘what if’ alternative history movie for you this week. ‘It Happened Here’ is a bit of dramatic conjecture about what would have happened in the UK had the Nazis succeeded in invading Britain.

Shot in a gripping part documentary style ‘It Happened Here’ shows the day to day struggles of Britons under occupation and how some collaborate with the occupying forces and others keep the flame of resistance alive. The movie centres on a nurse who tries to stay separate from British Nazi organisations but eventually finds that she has to join a Nazi run organisation in order to work. This exposes her to some horrors that are being perpetrated by the Nazis in the UK.

The film shows quite well the constant barrage of propaganda from the Nazis that the British people are subjected to and the recreations of 1940’s newsreels showing Britons taking part in pro-Nazi activities are very well done. Also chillingly and accurately well done is the scene where the nurse is speaking to the British Blackshirts about their reasons for following he the ideology of Nazism. This was a classic example of interview documentary of the style of the mid 1960’s when the movie was made. It was so well done that you could even believe you were speaking to real Blackshirts and it shows that the film makers had done their research for this dialogue very well indeed.

I’ve heard of this film before but only recently got a chance to watch it and found it profoundly bleak and depressing although extremely thought provoking. I enjoyed this movie even though it is about a very dark subject and I hope you enjoy it too.