78 | MARCH 30 • 2023 

W

hen Julie Orringer wrote 
The Flight Portfolio in 2019, it 
never occurred to her that 
one day it would become a Netflix show. 
But Transatlantic, a seven-part series that 
begins streaming on April 7, is based on 
her book. 
“It’s wonderful and surreal to see my 
work being adapted for a Netflix series,” 
says Orringer, who was partly raised in 
Ann Arbor and graduated from Huron 
High School. “I’m delighted the way it 
turned out.” 
Transatlantic — like The Flight Portfolio 
(published by Alfred A. Knopf) — is 
the compelling story of Varian Fry, an 
American journalist who founded the 
Emergency Rescue Committee, a New 
York-based group that helped refugees 
escape occupied France. 
Fry and the group helped more than 
2,000 Jews and Nazi-dissidents flee to the 
United States. Many were famous artists 
and writers on the Nazi’s most-wanted 
list, including Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, 
sculptor Jacques Lipchitz and writer Andre 
Breton. 
The series, like the book, is set in 1940 

in Marseilles. Fry’s colleague, American 
heiress Mary Jayne Gold, rented the Villa 
Air on the outskirts of Marseille. There, 
Varian and his associates secretly housed 
the refugees and provided them with the 
necessary documents to get them safely 
out of the county. 
As a young journalist, Fry had reported 
on the Nazi’s regime from Germany in 
1935. He witnessed Jews being brutalized 
with no consequences and wrote about it 
for the New York Times. 
The Netflix project idea was Anna 
Winger’s, the creator of the Netflix hit 
Unorthodox. Winger and her production 
company Airlift Productions had signed 
an exclusive deal to produce international 
dramas for Netflix. 
“
Anna, the showrunner and producer 
of the series, is a longtime friend of mine,” 
says Orringer, who has published four 
books and numerous short stories. “
Anna 
had been interested in Fry for many years 
but had no idea that I was, too, until she 
read my novel. 
“
Around the time my book came out, 
she told me she wanted to option it for a 
Netflix series.” 

BRINGING HISTORY TO LIFE
During the filming of Transatlantic, 
Orringer traveled to France to see the pro-
duction in progress. “To be on set last year 
in Marseille, and to watch specific scenes 
from the book come to life, was a stun-
ning, powerful, unforgettable experience,” 
recalls Orringer, who was an extra in the 
show. 
“I got to know the actors, and I saw how 
the makeup artists and costume design-
ers helped to bring the characters to life. 
I remember watching a rough cut from 
a scene in which Varian receives a letter 
from an old lover, and it was astonishing 
to think that the piece of paper in the 
actor’s hand had originated in my book.”
Orringer became aware of Fry and his 
work while doing research for her novel 
The Invisible Bridge (Alfred. A. Knopf, 
2010). “
As I was learning about the terms 
of the 1940 Franco-German Armistice, I 
read about Fry’s work on behalf of refugee 
artists and writers,” she says. “I realized 
Fry was a pivotal figure in 20th-century 
art because he saved thousands of artists 
who were in danger of being deported to 
concentration camps. The more I read 

Netflix series Transatlantic 
tells the story of Varian 
Fry, who helped more than 
2,000 Jews flee the Nazis.

Nazi-Occupied
France

Escaping

ALICE BURDICK SCHWEIGER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ARTS&LIFE
TV

COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2023

