The Saviour – an embryonic film of Chiune Sugihara
Sydney woman Linda Royal has partnered with writer Nico Lathouris [Mad Max), and editor Joshua Lundberg to develop a feature film – The Saviour.
Chiune Sugihara
She told J-Wire: “My father, Michael Margolin and my grandparents fled Nazi-occupied Poland in 1939 and were saved together with 6,000 other Jewish refugees in Lithuania in 1940 by the Japanese diplomat, Chiune Sugihara, who was stationed there.
At great personal risk and defying his government, he illegally issued transit visas to Japan to these desperate people, saving them from certain death. My family is number 745/746 on Sugihara’s list of visa recipients.”
Linda is seeking anyone who may have known my family during their time together in Kobe, Japan.
She continued: “Now that my three children have reached adulthood, I have decided to make it my life’s purpose to perpetuate Sugihara’s memory and this movie is my first project.”
“The Saviour” is a historical drama inspired by Chiune Sugihara’s selfless act of bravery set in Sydney in 1968 and then Japan and finally Moscow, where Sugihara’s whereabouts were discovered. The story deals with the trauma carried through life by survivors, the struggle refugees face and the impact on the next generation. In Linda’s story, a brave, young woman escorts her grandmother to Japan to personally thank Sugihara, the man who saved her, and in the process, reconnects with her traumatised father, her faith and learns to treasure the gift of life this heroic Japanese man afforded her.
To contact Linda: 0410 623789 or email at [email protected]
