On October 25, the Consulate General of Sweden and the Consulate General of Spain presented to a Shanghai audience NELLY & NADINE directed by the Swedish director Magnus Gertten. The screening took place at Biblioteca Miguel de Cervantes Shanghai. The screening had a special importance for the film, considering main character Nadine Hwang’s Chinese origin and that it was the film’s first screening in China.
Magnus Gertten is from Malmö and Malmö itself has an important role to this story, as Nelly & Nadine had its starting point in the city’s harbour, on the 28th of April 1945. On this date, Nadine Hwang and the other liberated concentration camp survivors were caught on camera when they descended from the rescue mission carried out by the White Buses.
The White Buses were part of a Swedish Red Cross expedition led by Count Folke Bernadotte that carried at least 17 000 prisoners to Sweden from the German concentration camps in March-April 1945. Sweden was one of the few neutral countries in Europe at that time and Malmö mobilized significant resources to house the refugees.
Inma González Puy, Director of Biblioteca Miguel de Cervantes in Shanghai opened the event. Consul General Marie-Claire Swärd Capra made the opening remarks and highlighted that, "Not only is Nelly and Nadine a fantastic documentary, but it is also politically relevant to us all, as it carries an important message of LGBTQ+ rights and everyone’s rights to express who they are. Nelly and Nadine remain amazing role models for today’s women. "
Deputy Consul General David Jallow moderated a Q&A session during which the audience had the chance to engage directly with the director who participated virtually from New York.
Magnus Gertten started to investigate the historical event in his hometown Malmö, where these survivors took their first steps of freedom. Magnus has made two other films based on his discoveries: Harbour of Hope and Every Face Has a Name.
