Filmmaker Robert Moniot’s The Ice Cream Man is eight many years within the making. The brief recounts the little-known true story of Ernst Cahn (performed by Noah Emmerich), a Jewish ice cream store proprietor who, alongside together with his household, fled Nazi Germany in 1936 to Amsterdam in hopes of a extra peaceable life. Nonetheless, after the Nazis invade the nation, the infamous German officer Klaus Barbie, also referred to as “The Butcher of Lyon,” houses in on Cahn and his institution. Barbie’s threatening presence forces Cahn to decide on between fleeing the nation together with his household or taking a stand in opposition to the brutal regime.
The Ice Cream Man landed the 2025 Oscars shortlist and has screened at a number of movie festivals, together with the Indy Shorts Worldwide Movie Pageant and the Naples Worldwide Movie Pageant, the place it gained the Viewers Alternative Award and Greatest Brief Movie, respectively.
Right here, Moniot talks to Deadline about bringing Cahn’s heroic stance to life.
DEADLINE: How did you discover out about Ernst’s story?
ROBERT MONIOT: My spouse is a United States diplomat, however then the State Division calls out of the blue and mentioned, “We’d like you to maneuver to the Netherlands as quickly as doable.” So, I googled the home that they advised us we’d be dwelling in and googled the closest seashore to mentioned home as a result of our children love the seashore, and I like to go kitesurfing. The [nearby] seashore is among the most stunning seashores I’ve ever seen. It has stunning dunes and seagrass. So, I used to be actually excited, after which within the backside right-hand nook of Google, it mentioned, “That is the seashore the place the Nazis executed over 300 resistance fighters throughout the struggle.” As a filmmaker, I instantly received this image in my head of a film poster with a man with a blindfold on his fingers tied behind his again on that seashore. And that’s now the poster for our film.
As I saved studying, the very subsequent sentence was, “The primary person who the Nazis executed was Ernst Cahn, a Jewish ice cream parlor proprietor in Amsterdam.” Then I learn that he was focused and arrested and tortured, and in the end executed by Klaus Barbie, arguably essentially the most sadistic Nazi to ever stroll the face of the earth. And I simply saved studying, and I simply couldn’t consider I’d by no means heard this story. The occasions that you just see within the film resulting in the outpouring of affection for him and anger about what occurred results in the most important anti-Nazi protest in historical past. I used to be immediately struck by the idea that even once I was simply sitting there studying on Google, I used to be like, “My children want to listen to this story. Everyone wants to listen to this story as a result of it’s a robust witness to 1 particular person’s energy of their group. The impact that they will have on their group.”
My spouse used to work in Hollywood earlier than she grew to become a diplomat as an govt. I advised her that I believed this was my subsequent characteristic, and once we moved to the Netherlands, I used to be going to put in writing this as a two-hour film. She says, “He died so quick, you don’t have a 3rd act.” And I used to be like, “No matter.” So, she advised me that possibly it ought to be a brief movie as an alternative, to which I [vehemently] mentioned that I’m not doing one other brief as a result of I need to get again into making an attempt to have a profession in Hollywood. So, I went to mattress very pissed off. However, then the subsequent morning, and that is the humorous half, I went to Deadline Hollywood, which I do every single day, regardless of the place on this planet we’re, and this advert pops up that claims, “Ship us your brief movie script in regards to the Holocaust, and we’ll provide you with $50,000 in the event you win.” And so, my spouse was proper [laughs]. It was the Claims Convention Rising Filmmaker Award, and I had about six days earlier than the competition deadline.
DEADLINE: Six days?
MONIOT: I requested my spouse if I may do that as a result of it was insane, and I took a crack at it. I wrote an enormous story so it may have an effect, however I didn’t suppose it might win. After three days into writing it, I despatched it to my Jewish mates in Hollywood as a result of I used to be stepping onto hallowed floor, and I’d by no means achieved something like this earlier than. I needed to be sure that I used to be being respectful and wasn’t breaking some guidelines that I didn’t even know existed, and I used to be getting some good responses. Then I discovered once I learn the advantageous print of the competition, and it mentioned, “You must have your script, your producer, your areas checklist, your taking pictures schedule and your funds.” I had three extra days, so I began engaged on that whereas ending up the script and piecing collectively, as finest I may, a picture of what this might price and what it might actually be.
The day earlier than the deadline, I couldn’t discover an ice cream parlor in Europe that labored. All of them appeared too trendy and really European. My buddy, my location supervisor mates in LA. and New York had been discovering a number of ’50s diner-looking locations, however nothing that made my coronary heart sing. So, I simply googled the yr “1900”, “renovated ice cream parlor” and “United States” and hit enter. The right ice cream parlor pops up referred to as Zaharakos that opened in 1900 in Columbus, Indiana, which I’d by no means heard of [other than knowing] Mike Pence grew up there. It’s this stunning, idyllic little city. I chilly referred to as the man who owned the ice cream parlor [Tony Moravec] to inform him that I used to be writing a brief movie in regards to the Holocaust for a contest that I in all probability wouldn’t win, but when I did, may I come to Indiana and shoot within the ice cream parlor at no cost? To Tony’s credit score, he not solely mentioned sure but additionally had me come out and meet him. He launched me to the group, in the end donated $50,000 of his personal cash to the film and received his finest buddy to match it. So, after I gained the grant from Claims Convention, we received a bit extra and had been prepared to determine how one can begin taking pictures the movie.
DEADLINE: What has been the reception between U.S. and European audiences in the direction of the movie? Particularly because you now reside within the Netherlands.
MONIOT: We determined early on that we might give the film away to colleges, museums and libraries once we had been achieved with it. The Anne Frank Heart partnered with us to develop a curriculum to accompany the movie as we [make the rounds on festival and screening circuits]. So, the 2 cool issues which have been taking place abroad once we had our European premiere in Amsterdam, I used to be trepidacious as a result of I made it a really American model of a Dutch story in that we filmed in Indiana, then as we had been in a position to shoot after funding, we went and shot some locations in Amsterdam. We labored primarily with a Dutch crew
Then we got here again and shot in Indiana, after which we shot some large scenes in Amsterdam, working with a primarily Dutch crew and San Fu Maltha, the producer of Black Guide. He’s a reasonably well-known Dutch producer. And the conversations we had been having, as a result of the Dutch are brutally sincere, had been like, “[In your movie] why are they talking in English?” And so I needed to reply, that’s as a result of it’s how the language of Hollywood cinema goes. Then it was, “Properly what accent is that alleged to be anyway?” And I used to be like, that’s the Dutch accent. San Fu was like, “We’ve got to dub the entire fucking factor.” [laughs].
So, we have now this big premiere in Amsterdam referred to as the Tuschinski the place Spielberg had his European premiere for Schindler’s Checklist, and I’m like, “Are they even going to have the ability to see previous the entire Hunt for Purple October model of all of the accents everywhere in the film?” One factor in regards to the Dutch is that they’re not outwardly emotional, in my expertise. They’re very beautiful individuals and really feel issues deeply, however there’s a little bit of a veneer after they’re coping with an American, in my expertise. However [I was relieved] to see that folks had been so receptive to it. Dutch individuals had been crying. We had a Q&A afterward, and San Fu received up on stage. In so many phrases, he principally mentioned, “I used to be incorrect. We did this precisely the best way that it ought to have been achieved and wanted to be achieved.”
Then there are the children. As we’ve been piloting the curriculum at center and excessive faculties, it has simply been extraordinary. I’ve had the honour and privilege of speaking to the children proper after they’ve watched the film and had been discussing the curriculum for a short time with their trainer. Additionally, the suggestions we’re getting from educators who’re piloting it for us as a result of we’ve achieved it in some faculties in america and a few faculties within the Netherlands as we get able to roll it out has been a very optimistic expertise.
DEADLINE: How did Noah Emmerich turn out to be your main man?
MONIOT: I wrote a script based mostly on my brief Pearl Harbor II: Pearlmageddon that New Line Cinema optioned, and Noah was going to supply it, so we’ve identified one another because the early 2000s. After I wrote the script and gained the competition, I referred to as him and requested if he may learn it as a result of I would really like him to play the lead. He was busy on different tasks on the time, however he referred to as me again and mentioned, “Are you aware about my father?” And he was very emotional. And I mentioned, “No.” It seems Noah’s father and aunt, with their mother and father, identical to the Cahn household, fled Nazi Germany in 1936 and moved to Amsterdam as a result of everybody assumed it might be impartial. They lived across the nook from the Cahn household and the ice cream parlor. There’s some proof that they really knew them. Noah’s aunt was classmates with Anne Frank. So, Noah was like, “I’m in.”
The factor about Noah, even earlier than I knew him as a human and as a buddy, he’s that sort of actor that the whole lot I’d ever seen him in, I simply cherished the man. Even when he’s enjoying sort of a sleazeball, there’s simply one thing about his character and spirit that speaks to me [laughs]. So, I used to be fortunate to get him.
DEADLINE: How did filming within the Netherlands, the place the occasion occurred, assist form your analysis and movie? Does the ice cream store nonetheless exist?
MONIOT: The place the precise ice cream store was, it’s now a ballet clothes retailer. Nonetheless, the residents above the place the Cahn household lived are nonetheless there. We received to shoot a lot of the Amsterdam scenes and the scenes in The Hague on the precise areas the place the occasions that befell actually occurred, on the Waterlooplein, contained in the jail the place Ernst was being held. That’s the precise jail the place he was held. In actual fact, the precise cell within the film is the one cell that the Dutch preserved from World Struggle II. They didn’t contact it. So, it’s a nationwide monument, and also you’re not allowed to go in there. And so they allow us to go in and shoot that scene inside there, and that was about six cells down from the place Ernst Cahn was held.
The opposite factor that occurred was we began the film in Indiana after which shot as a lot as we may. Then, we needed to pause to lift more cash, after which the strikes occurred. However then the miracle of that pause was the Cahn household, Ernst Cahn’s descendants, who I had been looking for and wasn’t capable of finding, discovered me and reached out to me and we grew to become mates. And Ernst’s grandson, Amos, is within the film. He’s one of many individuals being dragged away by the Nazis throughout the razzia scene. However they advised us issues that weren’t within the historical past books. For instance, the scene the place Ursula is allowed to go to Ernst the evening earlier than he’s executed wasn’t within the film that I initially wrote. And after they advised me that, Noah and I had been like, “Properly, we’re placing that in.” So, not solely town but additionally simply the opposite sort of occasions across the making of the movie continued to tell the artistic selections that we made all the best way up till the top of manufacturing.
DEADLINE: What would you like audiences to remove from this movie?
MONIOT: Whereas tragic, I needed to inform a narrative that hopefully additionally left you with this sense of hope and triumph. I feel one of many unbelievable issues that occurred throughout the making of the film was a lot to my shock as a result of we went to Indiana, a spot I’d by no means been earlier than. I didn’t understand how the story I needed to inform would land throughout this political local weather. I’ve to let you know, I’m a cynical son of a bitch. So many individuals on the suitable and left got here collectively and had a standard imaginative and prescient for why and the way this film ought to be made.
This was a nonprofit [production]. We had fiscal sponsorship from Movie Unbiased. Aside from a couple of grants, this complete film was paid for by individuals who had me of their lounge telling them why I needed to make the story, why I believed it was essential, and the way large I wanted it to be to promote the message. And so they all pulled out their checkbooks and wrote checks. This was individuals placing their very own cash in it. I need individuals to have an open thoughts getting into and drawing their very own conclusions after they go away. However I really feel like even simply speaking with you; I really feel like this story strikes a nerve with all people who sees it.
[This interview has been edited for length and clarity]