Italy’s public broadcaster RAI has completed production in the Czech Republic on $7m TV film The Secret Olympics.

Gary Lewis stars in the English-language production which shot on location at the site of the notorious concentration camp Terezin. The film is the story of an international group of PoWs who organise their own Olympic Games as a cover for a daring escape from a camp.

Alfredo Peyretti directed.

The film was co-produced by Casanova Multimedia (Italy) and Milk & Honey Pictures (Czech Republic); over 70 Czech film crew and over a dozen local service companies worked on the film along with an Italian crew of 15.

“The opportunity to shoot with many hundreds of extras in authentic locations was a key reason the director and our partners wanted to shoot in the Czech Republic,” said Tomas Krejci, a partner in Milk & Honey Pictures. “Since our sets were historically accurate, part of our agreement with the local municipality was to leave the buildings intact after filming.”

Milk & Honey helped the production access a 20% tax rebate on the Czech spend.