'Occupied City' trailer: Steve McQueen documentary explores WWII Amsterdam

Oct. 24 (UPI) -- A24 is introducing the new film, Occupied City.

On Tuesday, the studio shared a trailer for the upcoming documentary from 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen.

Occupied City is inspired by the book Atlas of an Occupied City by Bianca Stigter, a Dutch filmmaker and McQueen's wife.

The 4-hour film explores the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam during World War II while connecting those events to the present day.

"McQueen creates two interlocking portraits: a door-to-door excavation of the Nazi occupation that still haunts his adopted city, and a vivid journey through the last years of pandemic and protest," an official synopsis reads.

The trailer features scenes from modern-day Amsterdam as narrator Melanie Hyams recounts how the occupation led to the city's Jewish community being persecuted and killed.

"In May 1940, Amsterdam was taken over by the Germans," Hyams says.

"Dutch organizations were Nazified or forbidden. Soon, the Nazis started to ban Jews from parks, pools, shops, cafes, and schools, from all public life. Music by Jewish composers could no longer be played. In 1941, they started rounding people up. In 1942, the deportations began."

Occupied City opens in theaters Dec. 25.