John Rabe is a 2009 German-Chinese-French biopictorial

Biographical film

A biographical film, or biopic , is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their...

 film directed by Florian Gallenberger

Florian Gallenberger

Florian Gallenberger is a German film director. His film Quiero ser was awarded the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2001.-Career:...

 and starring Ulrich Tukur

Ulrich Tukur

Ulrich Tukur is a German actor and musician.-Biography:Tukur spent his youth near Hanover where he finished his final secondary-school examinations in 1977. He also achieved a high school degree in Boston during an exchange of students where he met his first wife, Amber Wood. With her, he had two...

, Daniel Brühl

Daniel Brühl

Daniel César Martín Brühl González Domingo is a Spanish/German actor. He is best known as Daniel Brühl.-Personal life:Brühl was born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. His father was the late German stage director Hanno Brühl and his mother was a Spanish professor. He also has a brother and a sister...

 and Steve Buscemi

Steve Buscemi

Steven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi is an American actor, writer and film director. An associate member of the renowned experimental theater company The Wooster Group, Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films including New York Stories, Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs,...

.

It focuses upon the experiences of John Rabe

John Rabe

John Rabe was a German businessman who is best known for his efforts to stop the atrocities of the Japanese army during the Nanking Occupation and his work to protect and help the Chinese civilians during the event...

, a German businessman who used his Nazi party membership to construct a Safety Zone in Nanking

Nanking Safety Zone

The Nanking Safety Zone was a demilitarized zone for Chinese civilians set up on the eve of the Japanese breakthrough in the Battle of Nanking...

, similar to the one in Shanghai, and save over 200,000 Chinese from the Nanking massacre

Nanking Massacre

The Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, was a mass murder, genocide and war rape that occurred during the six-week period following the Japanese capture of the city of Nanjing , the former capital of the Republic of China, on December 13, 1937 during the Second...

, which was being committed by the invading Imperial Japanese Army

Imperial Japanese Army

-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...

 after the 1937 Battle of Nanking. Based upon Rabe's wartime diaries

The Good Man of Nanking

The Good Man of Nanking: The Diaries of John Rabe is a collection of the personal journals of John Rabe, a German businessman who lived in Nanjing at the time of the Nanking Massacre in 1937–1938. The book contains the diaries that Rabe kept during the Nanking Massacre, writing from his personal...

, shooting for the film commenced in 2007, and it premiered at the 59th Berlin Film Festival on 7 February 2009.

The film picked up over seven German Film Awards

Deutscher Filmpreis

The Deutscher Filmpreis is the highest German movie award. From 1951 to 2004 it was awarded by a commission, since 2005 the award has been given by the Deutsche Filmakademie...

 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director (Gallenberger), Best Actor (Tukur) and Best Supporting Actor (for Buscemi, one of the few times that a Lola nomination has been given to a non-German citizen – Buscemi is American).