In 1613, feudal lord Date Masamune sent a Japanese diplomatic mission to Europe to negotiate with the Pope and the King of Spain in hopes opening a new trade route. Led by samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga and Franciscan monk Luis Sotelo, the expedition spent seven years traveling one-third of the globe. Discover the fate and legacy of these men caught up in the first stages of globalization and facing religious and political tensions.
Film Interviewees
- Jesús San Bernardino Coronil – Historian, University of Seville
- Toru Sasaki – Curator, Sendai City Museum
- Simon Hull – Theologian, Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University
- Naotsugu Hamada – Director, Miyagi San Juan Bautista Museum, Ishinomake, Japan
- Beatriz Palazuelos Mazars – Historian, University Sorbonne Nouvelle
- Julia Rodríguez de Diego – Director, General Archive of Simancas, Spain
- Clara Yu Dong – Manuscripts Librarian, Vatican Apostolic Library
- Ángel Luis Schlatter Navarro – Historian
- Juan Gil – Philologist, University of Seville
Secrets of the Dead: A Samurai in the Vatican is a co-production of GEDEON Programmes, NHK, AT-Doc, and ARTE France, in association with The WNET Group. Directed by Stéphane Bégoin. Screenplay by Flore Kosinetz and Stéphane Bégoin. Narrated by Jay O. Sanders. With Huarong Weng as Hasekura Tsunenaga and Ricardo Zeger Ramos as Luis Sotelo. Stéphane Millière and Virginie Guibbaud are producers. For Secrets of the Dead: Benjamin Phelps is supervising producer. Stephanie Carter is executive producer. Stephen Segaller is executive in charge.
Original production funding for A Samurai in the Vatican was provided by the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée (CNC), PROCIREP–ANGOA, and Creative Europe MEDIA.
Funding for Secrets of the Dead is provided by public television viewers.