Fall-Winter 1937. For nearly thirty years, German businessman John Rabe and his wife Dora have resided in Nanking, the Chinese capital of that time. He is the director of the Siemens subsidiary there. The thought of transferring management to his successor Fließ and returning to Berlin is a substantial professional setback for him. He has grown fond of the country and he knows he is a man of influence there; in the Berlin headquarters he would be just be one of several hundred at a desk with limited authority. During the farewell ball in his honor, Nanking is bombarded by planes of the Japanese forces, which have just conquered Shanghai. Panic breaks out and Rabe has the company gates opened to bring the families of his workers into safety. In a key scene, the people draw a large Nazi flag over their heads; stopping the fighter-bombers from causing more harm. (Germany was in the process of shifting its alliance from China to Japan in those years.)

• Steve Buscemi
• Daniel Brühl
• Zhang Jingchu
• Gottfried John
• Teruyuki Kagawa 香川照之
• Anne Consigny
• Ulrich Tukur
• Jingchu Zhang
• Dagmar Manzel

Genres:

Drama, History, War

Release date:

2009-04-02

External links:

John Rabe at IMDB John Rabe at Wikipedia