Dear Ambassador (Querido Embaixador) (NR)

synopsis

As Brazilian ambassador to France during the Second World War, he saved over a thousand people whose lives were under the Nazi threat, mostly Jews, by granting them highly irregular diplomatic visas from the Brazilian government so that they could leave war-torn Europe. Souza Danta's story is told as a series of testimonies by Holocaust survivors to whom he granted visas - diplomats, historians and acquaintances - mingled with World War II images, some being shown for the first time. The film has a star cast and shows us the fast-paced and captivating life of Souza Dantas, who had always dreamt of becoming Brazilian ambassador to France and living life to the full in his beloved Paris. The story takes place between 1922 and 1944, starting in the bubbly ''années folles'' in Paris, known as the divine City of Lights. With the German occupation, Souza Dantas moved to Vichy, along with the French collaborationist government and the rest of the diplomatic corps. In those times of war and dread. Souza Dantas went against the express orders of the Brazilian government and Nazi intentions and granted visas to all those who came to him in the hope of fleeing Europe and certain death Once the war was over, his humanitarian acts went unmentioned and were forgotten. In 2003, after much research, the Yad Vashem Museum decorated him with the title of ''Righteous Among Nations'', the highest honour given by the State of Israel to non-Jews who helped Jews in some way during the Holocaust.