DEAR AMBASSADOR

By Luiz Fernando GOULART

LATIN AMERICAN TRAINING CENTER (LATC) - as SALES / CONS

Comedy - Completed 2017

A docudrama feature film that tells the extraordinary story of Luiz de Souza Dantas. As Brazilian ambassador to France during the Second World War, he saved over a thousand people whose lives were under the Nazi threat.

Festivals
& Awards

Ventana Sur 2017
Video Library
Rio de Janeiro IFF 2017
    • Year of production
    • 2017
    • Genres
    • Comedy
    • Countries
    • AUSTRALIA
    • Languages
    • ENGLISH
    • Director(s)
    • Luiz Fernando GOULART
    • Producer(s)
    • Joaquim Vaz CARVALHO (Toscano Filmes)
    • Synopsis
    • DEAR AMBASSADOR is a docudrama feature film that tells the extraordinary story of Luiz de Souza Dantas. As Brazilian ambassador to France during the Second World War, he saved over a thousand people whose lives were under the Nazi threat, mostly Jews, by granting them highly irregular diplomatic visas from the Brazilian government so that they could leave war-torn Europe. Souza Danta's story is told as a series of testimonies by Holocaust survivors to whom he granted visas - diplomats, historians and acquaintances - mingled with World War II images, some being shown for the first time. The film has a starring cast and depicts the fast-paced and captivating life of Souza Dantas, who had always dreamt of becoming Brazilian ambassador to France and living life to the full in his beloved Paris. The story takes place between 1922 and 1944, starting in the bubbly ''années folles'' in Paris, known as the divine City of Lights. With the German occupation, Souza Dantas moved to Vichy, along with the French collaborationist government and the rest of the diplomatic corps. In those times of war and dread, Souza Dantas disobeyed the express orders of the Brazilian government and Nazi directives by granting visas to all those who came to him in the hope of fleeing Europe and certain death Once the war was over, his humanitarian acts went unmentioned and were forgotten. In 2003, after much research, the Yad Vashem Museum in Israel decorated him with the title of ''Righteous Among Nations'', the highest honor given by the State of Israel to non-Jews who helped Jews in some way during the Holocaust.