MEDIA ADVISORY:
June 17, 2014
MEDIA CONTACT:
Max Samis, Rabinowitz Communications, max@rabinowitz.com, (o) 202-265-3000, (c) 202-681-2528
Story of Unlikely World War II Heroine to make PBS Debut
“Enemy of the Reich: The Noor Inayat Khan Story” tells the astonishing story of an unlikely woman who took on the Gestapo in the Nazi-controlled Paris
Washington, D.C. – This fall, millions of viewers will learn the riveting story of how an unlikely woman of mixed Indian and American parentage came to serve as a British spy in Paris during World War II, as PBS brings to television the exciting true story of Noor Inayat Khan on Tuesday, September 9. This remarkable story is being brought to the screen in the docudrama “Enemy of the Reich: The Noor Inayat Khan Story.”
In August of 1943, the last surviving clandestine radio operator in Paris desperately signaled London for additional weapons and supplies for the French underground. The Gestapo was closing in and she knew her time was limited. Everything depended on her. How did a Sorbonne educated musician, a student of child psychology, and an author of a book of fairy tales became a daring spy who died fighting the Nazis?
With an American mother and Indian Muslim father, Noor Inayat Khan was an extremely unusual British agent, and her life spent growing up in a Sufi center of learning in Paris seemed an unlikely preparation for the dangerous work to come. Yet, it was in this place of universal peace and contemplation that her remarkable courage was forged.
When the Nazi’s invaded France in 1940, she fled to England with her widowed mother and three younger siblings and could have waited out the war in relative safety. But, she felt compelled by the lessons of tolerance and inclusiveness of her upbringing to take an active role in opposing the Nazis. She joined Britain’s Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, and was recruited as a wireless operator into Winston Churchill’s Special Operations Executive (SOE), secretly returning to Paris to support the French Underground as England prepared for the D-Day invasions.
After the penetration and arrest of her entire network by the Gestapo, Noor became the only surviving radio operator in Paris during four crucial months of the war, coordinating the air-drop of weapons, supplies and agents, and supporting the rescue of downed allied fliers. She was ultimately betrayed by a French collaborator and interrogated for months by the Gestapo. She never gave up any information, not even her real name, and she organized two breakouts from Gestapo headquarters. For this and the damage she did to the Nazi’s war efforts, she was executed in Dachau. 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of her birth.
Narrated by Academy Award winning actress Helen Mirren, the film’s Executive Producers Alex Kronemer and Michael Wolfe continue Unity Productions Foundation’s series of award-winning documentaries. The film was produced and directed by three-time Emmy Award winner and Academy Award nominee Rob Gardner. With a team of international scholars and two of her surviving family members, the documentary is produced as docudrama in a cinematic style.
Who: Executive Producers Alex Kronemer and Michael Wolfe of Unity Productions Foundation; Producer and Director Rob Gardner; Narrator Helen Mirren
What: “Enemy of the Reich: The Noor Inayat Khan Story,”
When: Tuesday, September 9
Where: The film will premiere on nationwide PBS affiliates.
Screeners and a streaming version of the film are available. The producers of the film, as well as other spokespeople, are available for interview upon request. Contact Max Samis, max@rabinowitz.com
The mission of Unity Productions Foundation (UPF) is to create peace through the media. A nonprofit organization founded in 1999, UPF produces documentary films for television broadcast, online viewing and theatrical release, and implements long-term educational campaigns aimed at increasing understanding between people of different faiths and cultures, especially between Muslims and those of other faiths.