One Life

One Life is a 2023 biographical drama, based on the true story of British humanitarian Nicholas Winton.  The film alternates between following Anthony Hopkins as a 79-year-old Winton reminiscing on his past, and Johnny Flynn as a 29-year-old Winton who successfully helps 669 predominantly Jewish children in German occupied Czechoslovakia to hide and flee in 1938–39, just before the beginning of World War II. Helen Bonham Carter stars in a supporting role as Winton’s mother.

This is a story that tracks Nicholas Winton’s heroic efforts to save children from the Nazis just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, to the years where his story lays dormant to the rediscovery of his humanitarian effort exposed on the BBCs ‘That’s Life!’ show in 1988. A poignant film, without being over emotional, it tells the story of this remarkable man, perfectly played by Anthony Hopkins.

‘Time Out’ described One Life as a “remarkable World War II story told conventionally but elevated by a superb Anthony Hopkins”, whilst the Guardian wrote “You’d need a heart of stone not to be touched by this extraordinary true story”.

Do come along to see One Life.  Nicholas Winton is still recognised to this day for his humanitarian work – most recently in September 2024 having a street named after him in Prague, and attended by four of the children he rescued now in their 80s and 90s.