Route to Paradise

Route to Paradise
Film poster
Directed by	Thomas Gardner
Written by	Thomas Gardner
Produced by	Trevor Avery Thomas Gardner
Cinematography	Thomas Gardner Dylan Kirby-Smith
Music by	Con Daniels
Production companies	LDHP Another Space
Release date	May 17, 2020
Running time	33 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Languages	English German

Route to Paradise is a 2020 British short documentary film written, produced and directed by Thomas Gardner.^[1] The film follows a team of archaeologists from Staffordshire University as they attempt to uncover the former Calgarth Estate, the site where 300 Jewish children were re-located to after being liberated from Nazi Germany's concentration camps during the Holocaust.^[2]

The film generated positive reviews from the Jewish community and critics for its depiction of the survivors stories as a narrative in the film. The title of the film is based on a quote from one of the survivors during an interview, where they described coming “from hell to paradise”,^[3] with an exhibition of the story being titled "the paradise route".^[4]

Development[]

During Christmas 2018, artist and curator Trevor Avery approached filmmaker Thomas Gardner to make a film about the excavation and surveying of the former Calgarth Estate.^[5][6] An appeal was later released into the press for stories and photographs pertaining to the survivors from local residents who had been around during their time in the Lake District.^[7][8] The planned dig had been given the go ahead after being funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.^[9][10] When Gardner agreed to direct, the film gained funding from Great Places: Lakes and Dales and the Acorn Initiative, as well as further funding from Another Space, South Lakeland District Council and the LDHP.

Production[]

Principal photography began early February 2019 in Oświęcim, Poland at Auschwitz concentration camp.^[11] Production was then moved back to the UK, where the crew spent two weeks filming on the grounds at The Lakes School with the archaeologists when the excavation began on July 15, 2019,^[12] then travelled to Nottingham to interview Norman Shepherd, a flight engineer with RAF Squadron 196. He was on the flight that brought the Windermere Children to England and is the last surviving member of the crew for that flight. The film was shot over a period of 5 months, featuring interviews with Arek Hersh and Sam Gontarz, two of the 300 children who had been liberated from concentration camps and re-settled in England. The main bulk of the footage came from survivor testimonies intertwined with footage from the excavation/survey of the Calgarth Estate, headed by forensic archaeologist Caroline Sturdy Colls^[13][14] who is most famous for her forensic examination of the Treblinka extermination camp.^[15]

Principal photography ended on July 27, 2019. The film went through a series of edits over the course of nine months to achieve the best possible structure to tell the story of the archaeological survey and to stay true to the story of the Windermere Children.^{[citation needed]}

Release[]

The film was originally scheduled to be released sometime earlier in 2020, however it was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released on YouTube on May 17, 2020.^[16]

References[]

External links[]

• Route to Paradise at IMDb