7 Amazing True Stories That Deserve To Be Made Into Films

7. The Komagata Maru

In 1914, a Japanese ship called the Komagata Maru sailed to Vancouver carrying aboard 376 passengers from Punjab (at the time, subjects of the British Empire). The passengers, craving a new life in Canada, were led by an influential Sikh named Baba Gurdit Singh (a nationalist who believed in an independent India). Singh's desire to charter the vessel to Canada was an effort to flout and publicise that country's harsh immigration laws, which existed to prohibit the entry of non-white people into the country. Upon arrival at Vancouver's coast, government officals made a categorical statement that its passengers would not be allowed to disembark. What followed was a two-month standoff which saw the passengers of the Maru being without adequate provisions for the majority of their stay, whilst the Prime Minister at the time decided what to do. Anti-Asian violence swept the streets, and the irate passengers aboard the ship finally revolted, pelting the policemen assembled on the dock with coal and bricks. Eventually the ship was sent back to Calcutta, where British troops ordered them to continue on back to Punjab. When the passengers refused, a riot ensued and 19 of them died. Some escaped but the majority were imprisoned and held back in their villages until the end of the First World War, with Singh going into hiding until he gave himself up at the behest of Mahatma Gandhi. How To Make It A period drama of 376 passengers being stuck on a boat for two months for political and racial reasons (without enough food and water, no less) is the stuff Oscars are made of. The story of the Komagata Maru is as important to Canada as something like 12 Years a Slave is to US history, and deserves a big screen prestige adaptation. Imagine a big-screen version directed by someone like Ron Howard, centring around the plight of those men interred on the Maru and the political goings-on around the situation and you're onto a winner. Close the film with the riots and viewers will be left justifiably moved and angry by the plight of those immigrants. Heck, you might even get the Canadian government to formally apologise for the incident after all these years.