Bel Powley discusses his portrayal of the 'relatable hero' who helped hide Anne Frank in the National Geographic series 'A Small Light'

Miep Gies, along with her husband Jan, helped hide Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis in Amsterdam, she also saved the girl's diary. But she never thought of herself as a hero.

"She didn't want to be put on a pedestal. Her mantra was, 'I just did what human beings are meant to do and I helped someone in need," Bel Powley, who plays Gies in National Geographic's "A Small Light" series, told Canneseries on Saturday. The international premiere of the first episode screened at the Cannes International Series Festival, followed by a debate on stage.

Amira Casar, former student of "Peaky Blinders" Joe Cole, Liev Schreiber and Billie Boullet also stars in the eight-episode series, co-created by Tony Phelan and Joan Rater.

"Everyone feels like they know this story, know [about Anne] and the 'Secret Annex. But there's so much more to learn and it was just an amazing learning journey,' Cole said.

"We were given the freedom to be open and lighthearted. It's a dark subject, but people fall in love, get married. Tulips still bloom every year."

"With vintage pieces, it can often look sepia, dusty. You may feel distant of that,” Powley added.

"Here it was always about connecting to these characters and their humanity. It's It's as much about them and their marriage as it is about what Hitler and the Nazis were doing. It's about macro and micro."

The series is directed by Susanna Fogel, alongside Phelan and Leslie Hope. She is also one of the executive producers of the show, which is produced by ABC Signature and Keshet Studios.

"My mother had spent time in Amsterdam, we went there several times when I was little I vaguely knew what Miep had done but I had no idea she was hiding as many people as she was,” Fogel said.

"We all have the ability to disengage, escape into our devices, and ignore this happening in the world. Even when you read about atrocities happening in different parts of the world, it's just one item on a Twitter feed among a million memes."

"Watching a relatable version of a hero makes people think it could be them too. Miep is a hero when you think about the big picture, but on a smaller scale, she's just a person who did something instead of doing nothing."

During intense research, Phelan began to uncover little-known details about the couple.< /p>

"We started digging all kinds of interesting facts. Jan was already married and none of them never talked about them publicly. But in our narrative, it just makes them easier to understand," he said, calling the series a "labor of love."

“From location scouting to filming, I was constantly encountering [Holocaust] survivors. They die, so I certainly feel responsible for continuing to tell this story in a new way, in a way that reminds people that it wasn't that long ago. »

"[The show] is meant to get people to sympathize with Miep and Jan, and to get ask, "What would I do in these circumstances?" Ask questions about what their parents or grandparents did during the war. At the moment in Amsterdam they publish documentation on the collaboration with the Nazis, which has been suppressed so far."

With Powley devouring Gies' autobiography ("She loved going out dancing with her friends, she loved Mozart , she talked about wanting her husband. Those are the things I could relate to as a young woman") and her big...