Lia Scallon as Mrs. O'Riordan Marta Dusseldorp as Helen van Praagh Marijke Mann as Mrs. Cronje Aden Young as Bill Seary Paul Bishop as Dennis Leighton-Jones Stephen O'Rourke as William Pargiter Vincent Ball as Mr. Dickson Nicholas Hammond as Marty Merritt Steven Grives as Westmacott Robert Grubb as Colonel Downes Arthur Dignam as Mr. Pike Tanya Bird as Siobhan O'Riordan Alwine Seinen as Millie Kitty Clignett as Sister Anna Shira Van Essen as Antoinette van Praagh Yoshi Adachi as Mr. Moto Mitsu Sato as Rags Taka Nagano as Boris Koji Sasaki as Lefty Julie Anthony as Female Vocalist Geoffrey Ogden-Brown as Band Leader Jason Arden as Edgar Kristine McAlister as Matron Heffernan Jesse Rosenfeld as Danny Tippler Phillip Stork as Michael Tippler John Elcock as Seaman Francis Hamish Urquhart as Aran O'Riordan Jemal Blattner as Older Aran O'Riordan John Proper as Captain Murchison Shigenori Ito as Dr. Mizushima Geoff O'Halloran as Sailor Chi Yuen Lee as Chinese Man Ping Pan as Chinese Man Production The story is based on the testimony of Betty Jeffrey, as written in her 1954 book White Coolies. The 1965 book Song of Survival by Helen Colijn (granddaughter of Hendrikus Colijn), another camp survivor, is not listed in the film's credits as being a source for this film, although Colijn is thanked for her help in the credits. According to the media information kit for the film, Martin Meader and David Giles researched the story from 1991 and met with survivors from the camp and choir. Meader and Giles wrote the original screenplay, which was titled "A Voice Cries Out". Graeme Rattigan then joined Meader and Giles and together the three travelled the world, raising $8.275 million for the film. They met Beresford in London and he immediately became interested in the project. Together with Village Roadshow, Beresford took over the film, re-wrote the script and renamed the project Paradise Road. Beresford and producer Sue Milliken then did their own research of the story for over more than two years, by reading books and unpublished diaries on the subject and by interviewing survivors. Meader and Giles got a "Story by" credit, and with Rattigan, they all received a Co-Executive Producer Credit. Their company, Planet Pictures, received an "In Association With" credit. The film represents an alternative take on female imprisonment by the Japanese during World War II compared with BBC's dramatic offering from the early 1980s,