Paul Verhoeven's first film made in his native Holland since 1983's The Fourth Man - after which he left for Hollywood and the likes of RoboCop and Basic Instinct - returns to the subject of the Dutch Resistance, which he first tackled in 1977's Soldier of Orange. Based loosely on a real character, Rachel (Carice van Houten) is a Jewish singer who, after seeing members of her party of escaping Jews massacred, joins the underground and infiltrates the local Nazi HQ, via the bed of officer Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch). Verhoeven delivers a rollicking yarn that's surprisingly traditional, if convoluted, and, as usual, nudges happily at the boundaries of sexual imagery. The performances are universally good and the bloody action is typically well handled but, while Black Book certainly entertains, it lacks the cultural tensions and mischievous satire that characterise the best of his American films.

In the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II, a Jewish singer infiltrates the regional Gestapo headquarters for the Dutch resistance.