Motion Pictures
November 10, 2000
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder To Attend November 20th German Premiere Of Feature Documentary “Into The Arms Of Strangers: Stories Of The Kindertransport”
(November 10, 2000 – Burbank, CA) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will attend the November 20th Berlin premiere of the critically acclaimed feature documentary “Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport,” it was announced today by Willi Geike, Managing Director for Warner Bros. Pictures, Germany. This marks the first time the Chancellor has ever attended a film premiere.
Chancellor Schroeder will be joined by some 500 cultural, political and community leaders and a class of Berlin high school students, to watch the documentary that chronicles the British rescue operation credited with saving 10,000 children from the Holocaust by relocation to foster homes in Britain just prior to the outbreak of World War II. The majority of those children never saw their parents again.
Before the screening, Chancellor Schroeder will address the assembled guests, followed by a speech from Charlotte Knobloch, Vice President of the Jewish Council in Germany. Sharing the stage with Schroeder and Knobloch will be the film’s producer, Deborah Oppenheimer, and two Kindertransport survivors, Ursula Rosenfeld and Hedy Epstein, whose true stories are chronicled in the film.
“Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport” will be released November 23, in Berlin, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Munich, Hamburg and Cologne, and in Essen on December 7, with Senta Berger providing the German narration.
"Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport" is a feature documentary about the 1938-1939 rescue operation and its dramatic impact on the lives of the children who were saved. Told in the words of the child survivors, rescuers, parents, and foster parents, these are the stories of those who survived with the help of others; they are stories of courage and hope, stories about the strength and resolve of children.
Narrated in English by Dame Judi Dench, “Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport” is written and directed by Mark Jonathan Harris, writer and director of the Academy Award-winning feature documentary “The Long Way Home” and produced by Deborah Oppenheimer. Of the 10,000 children who were saved, one of them was the mother of producer Oppenheimer, whose experience in making the film was a journey of discovery for herself as well as for many of the people she met along the way.
The Sabine Films Production is edited by Kate Amend. Music is by Emmy Award winner Lee Holdridge. The director of photography is Don Lenzer and sound design is by Academy Award winner Gary Rydstrom. The film is released worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures. www.intothearmsofstrangers.com and, in Germany, www.kindertransport.de. # # #