COLUMBUS, Ind. — The Indy Shorts International Film Festival is this week, and it includes a world premiere that prominently features a popular Hoosier restaurant.
The iconic Columbus, Indiana ice cream shop known for serving up sundaes with a side of historical charm now has a new claim to fame: star of a film.
Zaharakos is featured in a short premiering at the Heartland Indy Shorts Film Festival called "The Ice Cream Man."
The 33-minute film, based on true events, takes place during the Holocaust.
It's the story of Amsterdam ice cream shop owner, Ernst Cahn, who is targeted by a Nazi officer known for torture. Cahn, despite the danger, chooses to become part of the resistance.
"He was a well-loved person in the community, and he was Jewish," said Carol Frische, associate producer on the film and events coordinator at Zaharakos. "So the Nazis felt like if they made an example of him, it would frighten the rest of the people."
It's a powerful story that needed historically accurate scenes.
That's where this Hoosier connection came in.
The film's director, Robert Moniot, in search of a setting, turned to Google, made a cold call and landed at Zaharakos.
"He said, 'I've got to find an authentic 1940s ice cream shop.' He looked all over the world. And this is the only one that popped up," actress and Indianapolis native Gretchen Hall said.
"He found Zaharakos on the internet and thought it's the perfect setting for his film," Frische said. "So the owner of Zaharakos said, 'Sure!'"
That owner, Tony Moravek, died before the film went into production.
But Frische said its completion is, in part, a tribute to him, too.
The ice cream parlor, with its sparkling soda fountains and mechanical music, features prominently in the film.
"We took over the upstairs as kind of a production studio," Frische said.
"We used everything that was here," Hall said. "You can see in the dining scene, I sit with my family in this area. Downstairs in the ice cream shop, everything is the exact same. There is a scene where the window breaks, and that is a green screen, CGI, but he (Moniot) did not have to work that hard to make this work."
Many will recognize the short film's star, Noah Emmerich, who's best known for his roles on "The Truman Show" and on the FX series "The Americans."
But filmmakers included a lot of Indiana as well.
They not only shot here, but also hired Hoosiers on the crew and in the cast.
Hall plays Ernst Cahn's wife, Ursula.
One of her daughters and her husband are in the film.
Their family lives in Bloomington now, where Hall teaches at Indiana University.
She said several students helped on the film, too.
"It's amazing," Hall said. "An hour from where I live, I get to do this beautiful shoot in this amazing space that is authentically 1940s? I know this is a film about a family in the Netherlands, but it is also, there's a Hoosier heart to it."
"The Ice Cream Man" also shot scenes in the Hague in the Netherlands and on the dunes in Michigan City. It's already received accolades and quickly sold out two screenings at Heartland's Indy Shorts.
But Hoosiers say the ice cream shop in Columbus really made the movie. The Indiana setting is the cherry on top of a very memorable movie.
"It's a really powerful story that's being told, so to be a part of it's really exciting," Frische said.
Although the in-person screenings are sold out this week, you can still watch "The Ice Cream Man" virtually from July 23-28, through the Heartland Films website, under "Indy Shorts."