A new period drama is now on Netflix. Transatlantic tells the true story of Varian Fry, a journalist who arrives in France in 1940 with the Emergency Rescue Committee—dedicated to helping artists and writers flee the Nazis and immigrate to the United States.
Fry and American heiress Mary Jayne Gold, who helped lead the efforts, found themselves hiding out in a French villa. The two would help some of Europe's most prominent artists and thinkers flee, including Hannah Arendt, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, and Marc Chagall. (All of whom feature in Transatlantic.) Fry would later become the first American to be named "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum, for his efforts saving so many Jewish refugees.
Here's everything we know about the show.
It's based on The Flight Portfolio by Julie Orringer.
Vintage The Flight Portfolio: A novel (Vintage Contemporaries)
Orringer's novel is a fictionalization of Fry's Emergency Rescue Committee. Fry is sent to Vichy France to help rescue artists and writers, but once he arrives, he's faced with the unbearable moral dilemma: Does he save the 200 people that he was tasked with saving, or average folks? He managed to save 2,000 people.
"Fry’s situation—trying to decide which human lives to save based on assessments of refugees’ artistic or intellectual value—was morally impossible," Orringer explained. "In the novel, I wanted to add a personal element to complicate that calculus still further. What if someone for whom Fry cared deeply needed help? How would he balance that imperative with the needs of others, of people with more legitimate claims to his attention and resources?"
Transatlantic features an international cast.
Cory Michael Smith will star as Varian Fry and Gillian Jacobs will play Mary Jayne Gold. Lucas Englander will play Albert Hirschman, a German Jewish economist who worked with the Emergency Rescue Committee to help Jews escape. Transatlantic will also feature actor Corey Stoll, who will play Patterson, "the American Consul in Marseille who sees the refugees as an existential threat to American values."
Rounding out the main cast are Grégory Montel as Philippe Frot, Ralph Amoussou as Paul Kandjo, Deleila Piasko as Lisa Fittko, and Amit Rahhav as Thomas Lovegrove. The show also features Bridgerton's Luke Thompson as Hiram "Harry" Bingham, an American Vice Consul in Marseilles.
The Netflix drama filmed on location in Marseille, France.
Transatlantic filmed in English, German, and French in 2022. "The human ability to live fully, find joy and keep a sense of humor even in the darkest of times lies at the heart of Transatlantic. I can’t wait to bring audiences into this story," creator Anna Winger said in a statement.
Transatlantic will premiere on April 7, 2023.
The first trailer (watch above) dropped two weeks before the premiere. In one striking moment, a French policeman tells Varian Fry, "They are all criminal elements." He shouts back, "They are refugees!!"
The show had its official premiere at Series Mania Festival in Lille, France at the end of March, followed by a screening in Berlin.
There will be seven episodes in the limited series.
Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram.
