Steve McQueen’s “Occupied City” was already an endurance test at 266 minutes, intermission included, when it premiered at Cannes 2023.
A four-hour slog of clinical detail, absent of emotion, interviews, or archival footage, the film was adapted from Bianca Stigter’s “Atlas of an Occupied City (Amsterdam 1940-1945)” — Stigter is McQueen’s partner — and played more like an art installation than a theatrical feature. The runtime alone made it a punishing sit, leaving many to wonder what A24 planned to do with the project.
Now comes word that the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam will present the “real version” of “Occupied City”: a 34-hour cut. Yes, thirty-four hours. The Oscar-winning director of “12 Years a “Slave has expanded his clinical, address-by-address excavation of Amsterdam under Nazi occupation into an ultra-length doc that also folds in a pandemic-era portrait of the city.
From September 12, 2025, to January 25, 2026, a silent version of Occupied City will be projected continuously on the museum’s south façade. Inside, the full 34-hour version — with voice-over and sound — will screen during opening hours.
The project, spanning more than 2,000 addresses, doubles as both historical chronicle and conceptual artwork, aligning its presentation with Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary and the 80th year of liberation.
Whether anyone outside of academia or the art world will actually sit through it is another question entirely.
In the meantime, I’m hearing McQueen, who released his WWII epic “Blitz” last year, is working on a limited series over at Amazon/MGM as his next project. We should be hearing more about that project very soon.