As Britain withdraws from Palestine in 1947 a young British soldier haunted by the Holocaust smuggles weapons to Jewish freedom fighters, only to fall in love with a woman whose devotion to the birth of Israel may cost them everything.

As Britain withdraws from Palestine in 1947 a young British soldier haunted by the Holocaust secretly smuggles weapons to Jewish freedom fighters, only to fall in love with a woman whose devotion to the birth of Israel may cost them everything.

A Tale of Danger and Love

In post WWII Palestine, battle lines are being drawn between Jews and Arabs.

Our narrator and reluctant gun-runner John Craig is a young British soldier with the Royal Engineers. As U.K. forces leave the region, Craig finds he has a brief window of access to vast stocks of surplus British ammunition.

Having witnessed the aftermath of the Holocaust Craig is deeply affected by what happened to the Jewish people. He decides to run surplus British guns to a unit of the Haganah run by Dom Stern, in what he calls an effort to ‘even things out.’ And then Craig meets Ola.

Ola has come from Montreal to join convoys of Yehudi fighters running supplies up the Bab El-Wad to Jerusalem, which is under siege. She is among thousands of Jews from all over the world who have flocked to Palestine after WW II to build a new Jewish nation in the land that will soon be proclaimed ‘Israel’ by the newly formed United Nations.

Craig can’t help but fall for Ola, who is beautiful and courageous. He wants them to escape together. But for Ola, fighting for the state of Israel is more important than life itself.

The Bestselling Novel

13 Days is adapted from the bestselling 1959 novel of the same name written by Dr. Peter Hays (pen name Ian Jefferies), who served with the Royal Engineers in Palestine and personally witnessed the desperate early days of the Israeli state.

Peter decided to run guns to the Jews. After a few weeks – perhaps 13 days – he stopped because of his nerves. He couldn’t eat or sleep out of fear. If he was caught he would be shot, and the chances of being caught were very high.

Drawing from his own experiences of smuggling guns to the Haganah Hays created the character of John Craig, a British soldier torn between duty, morality and love.

Peter wrote the novel 13 Days from his memories of Palestine, loosely giving protagonist John Craig his own experiences and traits.

 

It was published by Jonathan Cape and became a best-seller, reaching number two on the Observer best-seller list in 1959. It was republished in Penguin paperback in the UK and North America.

The Film

13 Days is a sweeping generational story of courage, sacrifice and the birth of a nation. It’s a character-driven historical thriller in the tradition of such films as Lawrence of Arabia, The English Patient and For Whom the Bell Tolls.

The film’s visual tone is tense, sweeping and intimate, pairing sun-scorched landscapes and wartime danger with the emotional immediacy of a doomed love story.

This thrilling story of war and love will draw male and female audiences. It will naturally intrigue Jewish audiences interested in the early formative days of the Jewish state. It will also help to gently inform the wider world about the personal human cost and sacrifice that led to the birth of Israel.

A Precarious State

Israel’s modern critics would be shocked at how vulnerable the Jews were in Palestine in 1947.

The British Mandate was expiring, civil war loomed and few observers expected the Jews to win a war with the surrounding Arab powers that were planning to attack from all sides.

Britain was broke after WW II and didn’t want to upset its oil-rich Arab allies in the region. As Arab armies converged around Palestine the Jews found themselves alone once again.

Among the British forces in Palestine, some individuals were sympathetic to the Jewish cause. For all his faults, our protagonist Staff Sgt. John Craig was one of them.

Why This Story Matters Today

At its heart, 13 Days is not only about a pivotal moment in history, but about the human cost of living through it. It is a story of conscience, love and sacrifice set against the collapse of one world and the violent birth of another.

Audiences today continue to respond to stories that illuminate how ordinary people are shaped by extraordinary events. In an era defined by division, displacement and competing narratives about history, 13 Days offers a deeply personal window into a moment whose consequences still echo across generations.

By grounding sweeping historical change in an intimate and emotionally charged story, 13 Days invites audiences of many perspectives to engage with the complexities of the past through the lives of its characters.

Characters

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Protagonist and narrator. Junior officer with the British Army Royal Engineers posted to a large British Army ammo dump at Sarafand in Palestine. Disagreeing with the British government’s decision to evacuate the British Mandate and concerned that Israelis will be overrun by surrounding Arab forces when the British pull out, Craig decides to run guns and ammunition to the Jewish freedom fighters.

Craig meets Ola, a beautiful freedom fighter from Montreal who has come to Palestine to help fight for her people. Craig and Ola fall in love.

Craig is British, gentile and in his early or mid-20s.

A beautiful Canadian Jewish freedom fighter who has come to Palestine to fight for the Israeli cause. She is fearless, skilled and determined. Ola agrees to Stern’s request to befriend Craig, who is helping the cause. She finds Craig frustrating but also falls in love with him. Despite this her sense of duty to the cause of Israel is her life’s highest priority.

Ola is perhaps blonde, Jewish-Canadian, beautiful and in her mid-to late-20s.

Stern is a tough and brilliant German Jew in his 40s who survived the Holocaust and has come to Palestine to help build the Jewish state of Israel. Stern’s arms were injured from torture in the war and he cannot open his own car door, for example.  He is a dark character, who has seen far too much tragedy to have room for humor. Stern is intrigued by Craig and appreciates Ola, but his priority is the Israeli cause.

A slight, strikingly handsome 18-year-old Arab who befriends Craig and smokes hashish with him. Nazim is the foreman of the Arab workers who help Craig to fix any problems with the water or electrical supply at Sarafand. Nazim figures out that Craig is stealing ammunition on his truck, and asks Craig to provide him with arms for the Arab side which puts Craig in a dangerous predicament.

Officious and slightly dim officer to whom Craig reports to. Ross wants everything to go smoothly, without asking too many questions or worrying too much about details. His catch line is ‘always on the end of a phone’ which means Craig can always call Ross, although he is unlikely to get real help from the Major.

Ross is in his early 30s, like a young Colin Firth.

Location

Israel has changed so much since its inception in 1948 – stretches of open desert are now suburbs or irrigated farms. Shooting the story of 13 Days in the place where its events occurred is no longer an option.

The arid prairie landscape of Palliser’s Triangle, in south-east Alberta, closely resembles the desert terrain of 1947 Palestine. The region’s wide-open landscapes, coulees and dry grasslands provide an ideal natural setting to recreate the environment of the early Israeli frontier.

The production has secured access to a large private ranch in the Medicine Hat region that offers extensive untouched land suitable for staging key sequences in the film.

South-east Alberta’s landscapes, combined with Canada’s strong production infrastructure and financial incentives, make it an ideal location to bring 13 Days to the big screen.

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