Poster of "The Last Race."
"The Last Race", a historical film based on the life of Eric Liddell, a Scottish athlete and missionary in China during World War II, will be screened nationwide in May.
The movie tells the story of Xu Niu, who rescued Liddell and other foreign civilian prisoners held in a Japanese concentration camp during the war.
The role of Liddell is played by British actor Joseph Fiennes, who starred in "Shakespeare in Love" and "Elizabeth."
In 1942, Japanese troops created an internment camp for 2,008 European and U.S. nationals in Shandong Province. Its occupants included Belgian-born missionary Raymond De Jaegher and Liddell, who was an Olympic gold medalist for the men's 400 meters and a missionary teaching in China.
Liddell had taught at a middle school in north China's port city of Tianjin for 20 years and saved lives of Chinese soldiers during battles against Japanese invaders. He died in the camp in 1945, before the defeat of Japan in World War II.
"Ten years ago, I got to know the internment camp through the life story of Liddell. That was when I got the idea of making a film set in this camp," said Shin Gei-yin, the film's director.
The film "Chariots of Fire," an Oscar winner for Best Original Screenplay, was adapted from Liddell's life.
