The Windermere Children is a 2020 British biographical drama television film written by Simon Block and directed by Michael Samuels. Based on the experience of child survivors of the Holocaust, it follows the children and staff of a camp set up on the Calgarth Estate in Troutbeck Bridge, near Lake Windermere, England, where the survivors were helped to rehabilitate, rebuild their lives, and integrate into the British society. The film was produced by Simon Block as 'executive producer' with Nancy Bornat as factual producer and Ben Evans as development producer. The film first aired on BBC Two in January 2020.
Contents
Cast
Iain Glen as Jock Lawrence
Romola Garai as Marie Paneth
Thomas Kretschmann as Oscar Friedmann
Tim McInnerny as Leonard Montefiore
Philipp Christopher as Georg Lauer
Kuba Sprenger as Ike Alterman
Anna Schumacher as Edith Lauer
Marek Wroblewski as Shmuel
Pascal Fischer as Ben Helfgott
Jakub Jankiewicz as Salek Falinower
Kacper Swietek as Chaim Olmer
Tomasz Studzinski as Arek Hersh
Lukasz Zieba as Juliusz
Production
The real Calgarth Estate was demolished in the 1960s. The Lakes School near Windermere now stands on the former site of the wartime housing scheme that housed the children in 1945.
Although set in the Lake District, the production was filmed in locations around Northern Ireland.
Reception
As of October 2021, the film holds a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 11 reviews with an average rating of 8.5/10.
Awards
In October 2020, The Windermere Children won the Best European TV Movie of the Year prize at Prix Europa. A jury member commented "This story gives hope, told with a twinkle in the eye, making the children's stories, their traumas and their losses manageable for the viewer."