Country
USA
An inspirational tale of boyhood friends pulled apart by war based on the true story of an African serviceman who became a POW to the Japanese but was returned to the woman he loved before America bombed Tokyo in WWII.
Sophie Neville experienced a glimpse of what it was like to be a prisoner of war to the Japanese when she appeared in the BBC drama ‘Tenko’ in the early 1980’s. The serial, which was based on true stories, enjoyed the highest ever viewing figures.
Sophie’s family moved from the Malay States to Tanganyika in 1919, with a resolve to grow pyrethrum and ‘save the world from malaria’. After gaining an Honours degree in Anthropology at the University of Durham, Sophie went into television production, directing her first documentary for Channel 4 when driving from London to Johannesburg. Having produced an Inset series for BBC Education, she set up a Blue Peter exploration of South Africa and worked freelance for the BBC Natural History Unit in Botswana and Namibia. She was researching a wildlife film in Kenya for Alastair Fothergill when her Uncle Tony introduced her to Makorongo. In 1992, Sophie emigrated to southern Africa where she spent twelve years working as a safari guide and wildlife artist between film contracts, travelling though twenty-one African countries.