Amandla Stenberg Keeps Defending Her Next Movie 'Where Hands Touch'

Last year, Amandla Stenberg defended her upcoming movie, Where Hands Touch – and she’s still defending it today.

The period movie centers on the romance between two German teenagers – one biracial, the other as a member of the Hitler Youth – during the time of the Holocaust.

Social media and movie critics alike have voiced their disapproval of the film, saying that it romanticizes Nazis.

However, Amandla and director Amma Asante say the movie is to shine a light on the existence of “Rhineland bastards,” the German children of color who grew up under Hitler’s rule.

“We lack a range of the experience of black people throughout history, let alone a story about someone who is biracial. People don’t really know that biracial children existed then,” Amandla told Variety. “These biracial children where the children of French soldiers and German women who had fallen in love during World War I.”

“I think it’s challenging for people to conceive of a story about the Holocaust that is not centered around the Jewish experience, but the experience of someone else,” she added. “But I think what the movie does really beautifully is it demonstrates what happens with these tricky intersections of identity and how we still continue to be human and love and be loved, despite that.”

Amandla also spoke about her character, Leyna, who is “experiencing racism and persecution, which ends up leading to her being sent to a concentration camp where she lives an experience parallel to that of Romani people or disabled people or mentally ill people or outcasts.”

“Those who were not Jewish and were not sent to extermination camps, but were persecuted and forced to work…that’s where those biracial children were sent at that time.”

Where Hands Touch is expected to be out next month.