Varian Mackey Fry was an American journalist. Fry ran a rescue network in Vichy France that helped 2,000 to 4,000 anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees to escape Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. He was the first of five Americans to be recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations", an honorific given by the State of Israel to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat who served as vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, Lithuania. During the Second World War, Sugihara helped thousands of Jews flee Europe by issuing transit visas to them so that they could travel through Japanese territory, risking his job and the lives of his family. The fleeing Jews were refugees from German-occupied Western Poland and Soviet-occupied Eastern Poland, as well as residents of Lithuania. In 1985, the State of Israel honored Sugihara as one of the Righteous Among the Nations for his actions. He is the only Japanese national to have been so honored. In Lithuania, 2020 was "The Year of Chiune Sugihara". It has been estimated as many as 100,000 people alive today are the descendants of the recipients of Sugihara visas.
The Terminal is a 2004 American comedy-drama film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Stanley Tucci. The film is about an Eastern European man who is stuck in New York's John F. Kennedy Airport terminal when he is denied entry to the United States and at the same time is unable to return to his native country because of a military coup.
Anna Seghers, is the pseudonym of a German writer notable for exploring and depicting the moral experience of the Second World War. Born into a Jewish family and married to a Hungarian Communist, Seghers escaped Nazi-controlled territory through wartime France. She was granted a visa and gained ship's passage to Mexico, where she lived in Mexico City (1941–47).
The Count of Monte Cristo is a 2002 American historical adventure film, which is an adaptation of the 1844 novel of the same name by Alexandre Dumas, produced by Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber, and Jonathan Glickman, and directed by Kevin Reynolds. The film stars Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce, Richard Harris, James Frain, Dagmara Dominczyk, and Luis Guzmán. It follows the general plot of the novel, with the main storyline of imprisonment and revenge preserved, but many elements, including the relationships between major characters and the ending were modified.
Jan Zwartendijk was a Dutch businessman and diplomat. As director of the Philips factories in Lithuania and part-time acting consul of the Dutch government-in-exile, he supervised the writing of 2,345 visas for Curaçao to save Jews from the Holocaust during World War II. In 1997, Yad Vashem recognised him as Righteous Among the Nations.
The Consul is an opera in three acts with music and libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, his first full-length opera.
Shooting Dogs, released in the United States as Beyond the Gates, is a 2005 film, directed by Michael Caton-Jones and starring John Hurt, Hugh Dancy and Clare-Hope Ashitey. It is based on the experiences of BBC news producer David Belton, who worked in Rwanda during the Rwandan genocide. Belton is the film's co-writer and one of its producers.
East/West is a 1999 drama film directed by Régis Wargnier, starring Sandrine Bonnaire, Oleg Menshikov, Catherine Deneuve and Sergei Bodrov Jr. It received generally positive reviews from critics.
The Devil's Eye is a 1960 Swedish fantasy comedy film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman.
The Honorary Consul is a 1983 British drama film directed by John Mackenzie, and starring Michael Caine, Richard Gere, Bob Hoskins and Elpidia Carrillo. It is based on the 1973 novel The Honorary Consul by Graham Greene.
Transit is a novel by German writer Anna Seghers, set in Vichy Marseilles after France fell to Nazi Germany. Written in German, it was published in English in 1944, and has also been translated into other languages.
Superman: Unbound is a 2013 animated direct-to-video superhero film based on the 2008 comic book story arc "Superman: Brainiac" by Geoff Johns. It was directed by James Tucker and scripted by Bob Goodman. It is the 17th film of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies. The film's sneak preview was included with Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 and Injustice: Gods Among Us.
The Transformation of Dr. Bessel is a 1927 German silent film directed by Richard Oswald and starring Jakob Tiedtke, Sophie Pagay and Hans Stüwe. The film was based on a novel by Ludwig Wolff. It premiered at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo. It has thematic similarities with Ernst Lubitsch's 1932 film The Man I Killed. Whereas that film featured a French soldier partially assuming the identity of a dead German, in Oswald's film a German is able to survive by pretending to be French.
Happy End is a 2017 drama film written and directed by Michael Haneke, and starring Isabelle Huppert and Jean-Louis Trintignant, who had also played daughter and father in Haneke's 2012 film Amour.
Franz Rogowski is a German actor and dancer. He has appeared in films directed by Michael Haneke, Christian Petzold and Terrence Malick.
In the Aisles is a 2018 German drama film, directed by Thomas Stuber, that looks at the lives of people filling shelves in an out-of-town supermarket. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival. At Berlin it won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury award.
Styx is a 2018 German-Austrian drama film directed by Wolfgang Fischer. It was screened in the Panorama section at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival.
Close Enemies is a 2018 Belgian-French crime drama film directed by David Oelhoffen. It was selected to be screened in the main competition section of the 75th Venice International Film Festival.
Freud is an Austrian-German crime television series re-imagining the life of a young Sigmund Freud. The series produced 8 episodes which were first aired on ORF 15 March 2020 then released on Netflix on 23 March 2020.
