Nanking in 1937. The Japanese invasion plunges the Chinese capital into chaos and destruction. A group of schoolgirls manage to reach relative safety behind the walls of Winchester Cathedral, where they hide in the cellar. An American named John Miller also finds refuge in the cathedral, as do thirteen prostitutes from a nearby brothel. When the Japanese attack the building, the schoolgirls narrowly escape rape as a result of Miller’s valiant intervention. Initially only interested in the convent’s stores of wine and cash, Miller gradually takes on the role of protector. When the schoolgirls are ordered to ‘sing’ at a Japanese celebration, their lives are saved by a ruse: the prostitutes don the schoolgirls’ uniforms and go in their place – in spite of the fact that this means certain death.
Top Chinese director Zhang Yimou is a frequent guest at the Berlinale. Based on Yang Geling’s novel 13 Flowers of Nanjing about the Nanking massacre director Yimou latest work adapts for the screen a tragic chapter in China’s history which claimed the lives of approximately 200,000 people.