Inspired by true events, Children Of The Silk Road (also known as The Children of Huang Shi) is a portrayal both sweeping and intimate of people who, thrown into an unexpected and desperate situation, discover their capacity for love and responsibility.

It tells of how a young Englishman, George Hogg (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), came to lead 60 orphaned boys on an extraordinary journey of almost a thousand perilous miles across the snow-bound Liu Pan Shan mountains to safety on the edge of the Mongolian desert.

And of how, in doing so, he came to understand the true meaning of courage.

During his journey, Hogg learns to rely on the support of Chen (Chow Yun Fat), the leader of a Chinese partisan group who becomes his closest friend, and soon finds himself falling in love with Lee (Radha Mitchell), a recklessly brave Australian adventurer whom war has turned into an unsentimental nurse on horseback.

Along the way Hogg befriends Madame Wang (Michelle Yeoh), an aristocratic survivor who has also been displaced by war.

Madame Wang helps the young Englishman, his friends and their troupe of war orphans make their way across awesome (and rarely filmed) mountain and desert regions to safety near the western end of the Great Wall of China.

Inspired by true events, writer James MacManus discovered the story on a trip to Shandan, where George Hogg is buried.

At the same time, director Roger Spottiswoode was also interested in and researching that particular time in Chinese history – the late 1930s.

In the lead role Spottiswoode cast the charismatic Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who had recently won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Elvis Presley in Elvis.

"Johnny is a real Englishman, and he had just the right amount of knowledge and lack of knowledge to step into this world," Spottiswoode says.

Rhys Meyers admits he didn’t research China as he wanted to experience what Hogg did when he landed in Shanghai – the strangeness, the displacement and the excitement.

"I wanted to be faced with everything Hogg was ... being in a different world so far away from the things he knew," he says.

Opposite Meyers in the role of Lee, Spottiswoode cast Radha Mitchell, who is best known for her diverse roles in Melinda and Melinda, Finding Neverland and Silent Hill.

Spottiswoode had already worked with Michelle Yeoh in the James Bond action thriller Tomorrow Never Dies.

The Chinese actress is well known for her outstanding performances in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Moonlight Express.

Filming took place only 100 kilometres from where the Great Wall ends. This site is also close to where the actual orphanage that inspired the film’s story was built.

The scope of the production was immense, comprising of a predominantly Chinese crew of 300, including 15 Westerners and a dozen translators.

Children Of The Silk Road is rated M and is screening at Birch Carroll & Coyle.

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