Inspired by remarkable true-life rescue missions, The Red Sea Diving Resort is the incredible story of a group of international agents and brave Ethiopians who in the early 80s used a deserted holiday retreat, Arous, in Sudan as a front to smuggle thousands of refugees to Israel.
The logline for the film according to Netflix reads: “Undercover agents open up a fake hotel to real tourists as a cover to help smuggle thousands of Ethiopian refugees to safety. Inspired by true events.”
The undercover team carrying out this mission is led by the charismatic Ari Levinson (Chris Evans) and courageous local Kabede Bimro (Michael Kenneth Williams). The prestigious cast also includes Haley Bennett, Alessandro Nivola, Michiel Huisman, Chris Chalk, Greg Kinnear and Ben Kingsley.
The film was written and directed by Gideon Raff.
On what inspired him to make the film, filmmaker Raff tells Vanity Fair:
“’I heard about the bigger aerial lifts,’ — referring to the cargo planes used to fly thousands of Ethiopian Jews to safety in the 1980s. ‘But I never heard about this hotel.’
