The film “A Small Light” with Liev Schreiber in the role of Otto Frank is being filmed in Prague Film and TV News (Jason Pirodsky)
Filming of the miniseries A Small Light by Disney and National Geographic began last month in Prague and is scheduled to run until the end of October. The miniseries was filmed in the center of the Czech capital during the past month.
Little Light is based on the true story of Miep Gies, who, along with her husband Jan Gies, hid Anne Frank and her family for more than two years during World War II and preserved Anne’s diary for later publication.
Bel Powley (The Morning Show) plays Miep Gies in Little Light, her husband Jan is played by Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders). Liev Schreiber introduced himself as Otto Frank, the boss of Miep Gies before the war and the only member of the Frank family to survive the concentration camps.
After the war, Gies gave Anna’s diary to Otto, who spent the rest of his life trying to publish and promote Anna’s diary so that the world could tell his daughter’s story in her own words. Anna’s diary has been published in 70 languages and adapted into many plays, films and television productions; is widely regarded as one of the most important books of the 20th century.
The Little Light also stars Billie Boullet (The Worst Witch) as Anne Frank, Ashley Brooke (The Blacklist) as her sister Margot and Amira Casar (The Contractor) as their mother Edith. Susanna Fogel (The Spy Who Gave Me Kicks) will direct several episodes of the eight-part miniseries from a script by the series’ script and showrunners Joan Rater and Tony Phelan (Grey’s Anatomy).
The production of A Small Light began in the Czech Republic at the beginning of July, and its filming in Prague is scheduled for October. The filming of the miniseries will also take place in Amsterdam.
During the first week of filming, lead star Liev Schreiber took a break to speak at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where he spoke about the war in Ukraine and the humanitarian organization BlueCheck Ukraine, which he co-founded.
Schreiber, who is of Ukrainian origin, is no stranger to Prague: as a director, he shot the film Everything Is Illuminated here in 2005. Czech locations replaced Ukrainian ones in the coming-of-age drama starring Elijah Wood as an American citizen who visits Ukraine to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II.
In between filming Little Light in Prague, Schreiber also recently went to Ukraine, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
As an actor, Schreiber also made the 2003 TV miniseries Hitler:
Malé svetlo is currently one of three major foreign productions filming in the center of Prague, alongside the fourth season of the German series Das Boot and the new reboot of the film The Crow directed by Rupert Sanders and starring Bill Skarsgård.
Over the past month, scenes for A Small Light have been shot in various parts of Prague 1, including Old Town, Josefov and Malá Strana, which are likely to stand in for WWII-era Amsterdam. Production of the series will continue in the Czech capital for the next three months and will end on October 27.
The Small Light series is created for the Disney streaming service in collaboration with National Geographic. Expect a premiere in mid to late 2023.