Film on John Chau killed by Sentinelese tribe to be released in India on Dec 10

Port Blair: A film on John Chau, an American missionary who attempted to contact the Sentinelese tribe in the Bay Islands and was killed five years ago, will be premiered in India in the National Geographic Channel on December 10.

'The Mission', the film on Chau has been directed by Amanda Mcbaine and Jesse Moss and produced by Simon Chinn and Jonathan Chinn.

Marcus Cammack, the senior director of global communications of National Geographic Channel, in an e-mail to PTI said, “Confirming it (The Mission) will premiere on National Geographic Channel on Sunday, December 10 at 10 pm.” The film uncovers the gripping story beyond the of the young missionary who attempted to contact the reclusive indigenous Sentinelese in 2018.

John Chau’s murder had sent ripples across the country and the international community given that no one had attempted to contact the Sentinelese, considered the world’s last pre-Neolithic tribe, before. The incident had also raised several questions of marine security.

The Sentinelese are hostile to outsiders and have killed people who approached or landed on the island.

The tribe inhabits the North Sentinel Island and are designated by the government as a particularly vulnerable tribal group. The Sentinelese belong to the broader class of Andamanese people and are designated as a particularly vulnerable tribal group and a scheduled tribe.

In the US, 'The Mission' has already been premiered in some theatres. It will release in the U.K., Ireland and in India on November 17 and December 10 respectively, Channel sources said.

The film makers drew on the art form of comics, which had inspired Chau himself, to visualize his master plan. It outlines in detail his strategy to reach the island and convert the Sentinelese and the hand-drawn animation brings to life key moments in the story.

“Through exclusive interviews and with unprecedented access to John’s secret plans, personal diaries and video archives, 'The Mission' examines the mythology of exploration that inspired him, the evangelical community that supported his quest, and reveals his own father’s heartbreak as Chau’s youthful thirst for adventure became a fatal obsession,” the statement shared by Cammack reads.

John Chau’s murder had sent ripples across the country and the international community given that no one had attempted to contact the Sentinelese, considered the world’s last pre-Neolithic tribe, before. The incident had also raised several questions of marine security.

Inquiries into his death revealed that Chau went to Port Blair on October 16, 2018 and stayed in Hotel Lalaji Bay View. He left for Hut Bay in Little Andaman Island on October 19 and returned to Port Blair on November 5, 2018.

On his return he stayed with a friend Alexander in Port Blair till he left for North Sentinel Island on November 14, 2018 evening. His fishermen friends saw him being dragged and buried by unknown persons in the beach of North Sentinel Island in the morning of November 17, 2018.

“Looking closely at John Chau’s death, we found a complicated, layered story, equal parts adventure and tragedy. At its core, it is an intimate drama, an emotional dialogue between father and son. But it also raises questions for all of us about the great historical forces that have shaped our world, about the implications of faith and the legacy of the so-called Age of Discovery.

"It is a story worthy of the big screen and one that echoes the epic tales that inspired John and finally doomed him,” said the film's directors McBaine and Moss.