‘Forty-Two (2025) - 4/10

This isn’t a new concept, what if the Nazis had won World War 2 has been explored many times from Robert Harris’ Fatherland to Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. The scope of those tales is much larger though, how the history of Europe, America and the world would be affected. The budgets of the film and television adaptations much greater too. ‘Forty-Two is much more focused solely on Britain and Manchester in particular, which is a good idea for a small independent production. It’s not a military assault that’s brought Britain to its knees, but a manufactured virus, one controlled by the Nazis and one that now keeps the population living in fear. Stripped of colour and laced with an ominous score, it’s bleak as you’d imagine. It is a bit wooden though, which reduces how chilling it should be. The cast is sparse, lead into a church and put under interrogated by sadistic SS Officer Goethe (Matthew McCloud). It has the feel of a play as they’re slowly picked out, suspected of harbouring resistance fighters and tortured for information. There’s some good performances from Adrian Palmer as the secretive Professor Grey, Mia Vore as sympathetic nurse Marilyn Dawson and Oliver Devoti as the headstrong Arthur Fletcher, but its pacing is a little too slow and it struggles as a result. There are some twists though and some teeth gritting scenes, including some gore, but it’s held back by what’s achievable on a tiny budget and it would be interesting to see what more financing would bring to the screen.

4/10