Nanking

USA 2007 / 86min.
Directors Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman / Producer Ted Leonsis

A powerful, emotional and relevant reminder of the heartbreaking toll war takes on the innocent; Nanking tells the story of the Japanese World War II invasion of Nanking, China. As part of a campaign to conquer all of China, the city was subjected to months of aerial bombardment as well as murder and rape on a horrifying scale.

In the midst of the rampage, a small group of Westerners banded together to establish a Safety Zone where over 200,000 Chinese found refuge. Unarmed, these missionaries, university professors, doctors and businessmen, including a Nazi named John Rabe, risked their own lives protecting locals from the slaughter.

The film is unique by its recreation of events through the staged readings of the Westerners’ letters and diaries, featuring Woody Harrelson, Mariel Hemingway and Jurgen Prochnow.

Nanking unfolds through deeply moving interviews with Chinese survivors, chilling archival footage and photos of the events, and testimonies of former Japanese soldiers and the Westerners’ first hand accounts.

It puts the viewer on the streets of Nanking and brings the forgotten past to startling life — a testament to the courage and conviction of individuals who were determined to act in the face of evil and a powerful tribute to the resilience of the Chinese people – a gripping account of light in the darkest of times.

This is a kind of bravery war docs rarely get the chance to celebrate, and in an era of learned helplessness, it couldn’t come at a better time. — Indiewire (Susan Gerhard)

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