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How One Filmmaker’s Obsession With a Forgotten WWII Tragedy Led to the Doc ‘The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru’
The Hollywood ReporterStory by Mathew Scott
scrn logline
A forgotten WWII tragedy is resurrected as a Chinese filmmaker's decade-long quest to uncover the untold stories of the 1,816 British POWs aboard the doomed Lisbon Maru.
beat sheet
- Fang Li stumbled upon the Lisbon Maru story by chance while location scouting with author Han Han, sparking a personal mission to find the long-lost wreckage and bring the victims' forgotten tales to light.
- The film's simple yet powerful hand-painted animation and focus on the oral histories of survivors and victims' families has made it a surprise box office hit in China, earning over $6.2 million and connecting with audiences in unexpected ways.
call sheet
Fang Li, Han Han, Tony Banham, Blue Sky Rescue, China's national underwater archaeology team, Gimini Sky, UK-China Film, The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru