It’s chaotic at The Phoenix Picture House. There are hordes of teenage girls waiting for Hollywood teen star Noah Schnapp to arrive for the film premiere of Waiting For Anya, legions of film makers and directors, competition winners, school children, make up artists, PAs, PRs, and then us, clutching our notepads and microphones, uncertain what to do next.

Sir Michael Morpurgo with young Ox In A Box reporters Bea Payne and Hallie Harrison

We are led upstairs where, sitting amidst the chaos in the cafe, is Sir Michael Morpurgo, the famous author, known for this worldwide bestselling children’s books such as War Horse, an oasis of calm in a sea of overexcited disharmony, waiting to be interviewed.

“the Holocaust wasn’t just about Jews, it was about humanity, not them and us, but all of us”

It is a relief, to say the least, and we begin our questions with the distinguished author, whose book Waiting For Anya is at the centre of so much fuss, buzz, hype and rave reviews.

The true tale of the young French shepherd who helped lead Jewish children to safety across the Pyrenees into Spain to escape from the Nazis only came to light when a young girl recognised Sir Michael walking in the mountains and asked him to come and meet her grand-father.

Noah Schnapp in Waiting For Anya

Her grand-father turned out to be the mayor of Lescun, who in turn told Sir Michael the story of the local shepherd boy and his part in the Jewish escape. Sir Michael, knowing a good story when he heard one, turned it into a book, and the rest, as they say, is history.

“No one really wins wars, but that’s the thing about this story, we want to change what people know about the holocaust and stories have the power to do that”

And yet Sir Michael is reflective when we ask why this film was such an important story to tell.

“Gosh you do start with the hard questions don’t you,” the 76 year-old asks our young Ox In A Box reporters Bea Payne and Hallie Harrison from Woodstock’s Marlborough School.

“But to answer your question, I am very concerned with the world as it is, that we have begun to think of other people as ‘them’ and ourselves as ‘us’, the same state of mind that proceeded the Holocaust.

Noah Schnapp and Sir Michael

“And it worries me as a writer, teacher and father when people do not know about the Holocaust. We think everyone has been told about it, but that is just not the case. And when we don’t know about something we detach from it and become disinterested and that’s when people stop believing in things, that they cease to exist, despite everything that happened in Europe.

“So ‘over there’ becomes ‘them’, and because ‘over here’ is this country where we were distanced from Hitler and the Nazis to some degree by being an island, it’s not our history.

“The UK has not been occupied for thousands of years, so we haven’t had the same experience of being invaded by an army with their jackboots marching through our towns and villages. Yes we had to put up with bombs and fighting against the Fascists but we don’t actually know what it’s like to be occupied.

“No one really wins wars, but that’s the thing about this story, we want to change what people know about the Holocaust and stories have the power to do that.

“Because as a writer, you have to write about what you care about or you wouldn’t go on doing it, and I care about freedom and about stories of injustice which enrage me. I write because I care.

“The Holocaust wasn’t just about Jews, it was about humanity, not ‘them’ and ‘us’, but all of us, so it’s still an important story to tell.”

Waiting For Anya opens At Oxford, Banbury and Winey’s Vue cinemas on Friday.

http://www.myvue.com/cinema