This week, Netflix released the first trailer for its upcoming film, The Red Sea Diving Resort, which stars Captain America himself, Chris Evans.
The film tells the story of agents working to save Jewish Ethiopians by using a resort as a cover to transport them to Israel. The film has a similar vibe to Argo, where an undercover operation is undertaken to save people from a dangerous country.
But are the events of The Red Sea Diving Resort based on a true story? Here is everything you should know about the upcoming Netflix film and what inspired its creation.
Is The Red Sea Diving Resort a true story?
The Red Sea Diving Resort is based on real-life events that took place in the early ’80s. The story itself is extremely interesting, and, if done right, could be a compelling film for Netflix viewers.
During the events, Jewish Africans were not allowed to practice their religion and the country barred anyone from leaving who wanted to travel to a place where they could exercise their religious freedom. Because of this, many of these people —12,000 to be exact — were trying to escape Africa for Sudan in the hopes of finding freedom. Trouble was encountered along the way.
The Israeli government took notice of the issue and executed a series of operations to rescue the Jewish refugees. One of these missions was Operation Brothers, on which the film is based.
Due to tensions being high between Israel and Sudan, the government used the Mossad Intelligence to devise a top-secret plan to discretely extract these refugees. This plan involved reviving an abandoned resort to funnel these refugees out without anyone noticing.
According to TheWrap, the resort cover was so well done, that the location brought “foreign scuba divers and other tourists.” No one had a clue what the location was being used for, including the people working there. But as night came, the extraction of refugees would happen without any resort guest being aware of what was transpiring.
The entire mission is said to have rescued 6,000 refugees during its run and went mostly unnoticed by the Sudanese government. Overall, it sounds like an important moment in time, when a government had the compassion to step into a situation when they did not have to and save people who lacked the ability to do so themselves. Given the current refugee struggles, this sounds like a crucial film to watch when it hits the streaming service.
The Red Sea Diving Resort will hit Netflix on July 31.