23 years after the debut of Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning movie Schindler’s List, the story of Chiune Sugihara will make its U.S. debut at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival on January 31, reports the Huffington Post.
Persona Non-Grata is directed by Japanese American Cellin Gluck who also worked on Remember the Titans, Contact and Transformers.
Sugihara issued visas to Jews trying to escape the Nazis in Lithuania. He worked as a diplomat there for the Japanese government and helped the Jews against the orders of his own Japanese government. Sugihara is credited with saving more than 6,000 lives. He would eventually lose his job.
“Heroes are born when ordinary people respond to extraordinary circumstances,” Gluck said. “[Sugihara] didn’t advertise or flaunt his heroism. He just did what he thought was right, and as a result, thousands of people’s lives were saved, and their descendants eventually numbered in the tens of thousands. That’s what made him a hero.”
You can learn more about this movie and this remarkable man in the Huffington Post.
