Sophie and the Rising Sun

• director: Maggie Greenwald
• actor: Diane Ladd Joel Murray Julianne Nicholson Karen Wheeling Reynolds Lorraine Toussaint Margo Martindale Mickey Dodge Takashi Yamaguchi
• writer: Maggie Greenwald

Synopsis:

In the autumn of 1941, Grover Ohta, an educated and gentlemanly first-generation Japanese American, arrives in the small town of Salty Creek, South Carolina. The tight-knit, God-fearing community is unsettled by the “yellow foreigner” and looks upon him with disdain and suspicion. Iconoclastic Sophie, a lonely but comely spinster, is cautiously drawn to Ohta. Connected by their love of painting and each nursing painful memories, the two find themselves attracted to each other. While gossip about Ohta and Sophie’s relationship spreads through the disapproving town, news of the bombing of Pearl Harbor comes, and Ohta becomes even more of a target. [Synopsis courtesy of Sundance Film Festival]