varian's war

Director: lionel chetwynd

Actor: william hurt,howard ryshpan,carol shamy,harald winter

Data Published: Sun Apr 22 2001

Genres: Drama,War

Key Words: based on real person,france,occupied france,nazi occupied france,20th century

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245540/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varian%27s_War

Description: Varian's War is a TV movie starring William Hurt, Howard Ryshpan, and Carol Shamy. Varian Fry rescues more than 2,000 artists from Nazi persecution during World War II.

Plot: While in Berlin during Kristallnacht in 1938, journalist Varian Fry (William Hurt) witnessed the Nazi's brutal treatment of Jews. He was physically sick and felt helpless to help the victims that the brown-shirted thugs had clubbed to the ground. The experience left him with a resolve to do something to help the Jews. Back in the United States, Fry begins to canvass his influential friends and acquaintances, only to find indifference and even, anti-semitism. Learning that the Nazis have targeted artists and intelligentsia, he approaches the State Department with a plan and a few names including artist Marc Chagall (Joel Miller), scrawled on a list. When the State Department tries to block his plans to head back to Europe, Fry finds an ally in First lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Sheena Larkin) who intervenes on his behalf. In 1940, heading for Marseille in Nazi-occupied Vichy France, where he knows that Jewish artists have taken refuge, Fry arrives with money to bribe officials. Chagall is safely housed by Vice Consul Harry Bingham (Ted Whittall), a U.S. consulate official, but like many other expatriates, Chagall believes he is safe in France. Word spreads quickly in Marseille that an American will help Jews to escape Vichy France. In setting up an office out of his hotel room, Fry encounters Miriam Davenport (Julia Ormond) who helps him screen the numerous refugees that begin lining up at his hotel. Two other accomplices approach Fry, Albert Hirschman (Matt Craven), a Jewish con-man that he names "Beamish", and Bill Freier (Alan Arkin), a counterfeit expert. With picture-perfect forged passes and identification cards, Fry begins to send Jewish artists out of France to Spain where they can arrange transport to the United States. Both French and German officials suspect that Fry is deceitful and assign agents such as Captain Marius Franken (Christopher Heyerdahl) to follow him. With French collaborators turning in Jews, an urgency to leave begins to take hold. Even Chagall now joins with author Heinrich Mann (John Dunn-Hill) and others in seeking transport out of Marseille. Fry and Davenport decide to shepherd the large group of frightened refugees, first on a train, then taking the group on a long hike through a mountain forest to a checkpoint where, if their documents will be accepted, means they will be free to enter neutral Spain. Despite some near misses, the Jewish artists, musicians, authors, painters, sculptors and other "elites" make their way to freedom. Fry's clandestine underground escape route over the Pyrenees eventually brings more than 2,000 Jewish exiles including Marc Chagall and Bella Chagall, Hannah Arendt, Max Ernst, Lion Feuchtwanger, Franz Werfel and Jacques Lipchitz, among others, out of Vichy France.