City of Life and Death

Chinese director Lu Chuan directs this historical drama based on the invasion of Nanking - the then-capital of the Republic of China - by the Japanese army in 1936, the event that has since been dubbed the Rape of Nanking or the Nanking Massacre.

Over a period of several weeks, tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians were brutally tortured, raped and killed by soldiers of the Imperial Japanese army.

Filmed in black and white, the film portrays the experiences of several characters swept up in the conflict, both historical and fictional, including a Chinese soldier, a schoolteacher, a Japanese soldier, a foreign missionary, and Nazi businessman John Rabe (John Paisley).