2009 Germany, France, China John Rabe | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Summary: This US$20 million China-Germany co-production is a biographical film about John Rabe, the Nazi German businessman who, during the Nanjing Massacre, established an International Safety Zone in Nanjing and sheltered hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians from being slaughtered by the invading Japanese armies. Often compared to Schindler's List, the 2009 war epic premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and garnered universal acclaim, then went on to sweep the German Film Awards winning trophies for Best Film, Best Actor, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design.
Under the camera lens of German director Florian Gallenberger, Rabe's horrifying account of the Nanjing Massacre leaps to the silver screen. Shot on location in Nanjing and Shanghai, the story is told from the perspective of the survivors, depicting the humanitarian efforts of John Rabe (played by German actor Ulrich Tukur) and his associates in protecting the Nanjing people. The star-studded international cast includes German actor Daniel Bruhl (Good Bye Lenin!), American actor Steve Buscemi (Reservoir Dogs), French actress Anne Consigny (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), Mainland Chinese actress Zhang Jingchu (The Beast Stalker), actor Yuan Wenkang (The Assembly), and Japanese thespian Kagawa Teruyuki (Tokyo!). Rabe's legend caught the attention of German public in 2007 when German local TV station NDR aired a documentary "Nanjing 1937", which recorded in detail John Rabe's humanitarian deeds in China. Rabe's book "John Rabe's Diary", written in 1937 when he was living in China, disclosed the sordid truth of the Japanese brutal killings in Nanjing. The book was first published in Germany in 1996. The war epic has led the German Film Awards with seven nominations, as announced recently. A Chinese news source reported, "In Japan, none of the major film companies were willing to watch the screening." Florian Gallenberger also confirms these difficulties. Presented by Chinese mainland entertainment giant Huayi Brothers. |