Polish Film Festival to Screen ‘Persona Non Grata’

Toshiaki Karasawa plays Chiune Sugihara in “Persona Non Grata.”

BEVERLY HILLS — “Persona Non Grata” (Sugihara Chiune, 2015, 139 minutes) will be screened on Sunday, Oct. 16, at 11 a.m. at the Laemmle Music Hall Theater, 9036 Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills, as part of the 17th annual Polish Film Festival Los Angeles.

In director Cellin Gluck’s fact-based historical drama, diplomat Chiune Sugihara (Toshiaki Karasawa) hopes to be posted in the Soviet Union using his mastery of the Russian language and intelligence, but is denied entry into the country and is sent to Lithuania. In Kaunas, Lithuania, he continues gathering intelligence on European affairs with his Polish partner, Pesch (Borys Szyc).

In 1939, when Germany invades Poland and incites World War II, hordes of Jewish refugees oppressed by the Nazis turn to Sugihara for visas. With no approval from the Japanese government and despite putting himself and his family in danger, Sugihara decides to start issuing transit visas to the refugees.

The cast also includes Koyuki as Yukiko and Agnieszka Grochowska as Irina.

Admission is $11. For more information, visit www.polishfilmla.org.