18-11-2008

Hallmark begins filming in Riga

By FNE Staff
    The Hallmark Hall of Fame TV film Miss Irena's Children began shooting on November 13 in Riga.

    The Gillham Road Productions film stars Anna Paquin in the lead role of social worker Irena Sendler, the Polish heroine who was credited with saving the lives of almost 2,500 Jewish children during WWII by smuggling them out of the Warsaw ghetto.

    Filming will take place in Riga's old town.Director/writer John Kent Harrison based the film on the book Mother of the Holocaust Children: the Story of Irena Sendler by Anna Mieszkowska. Sendler was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

    The production team includes production designer Waldemar Kalinowski, cinematographer Jerzy Zielinsk, Jeff Most and Brent Shields as production supervisors, and co-writer Larry Spagnola,

    The film is scheduled to be shown on CBS in May, 2009.