One Life Eloquently and Modestly Shares Heroism of Nicholas Winton

It only takes one person to make a difference. One person who selflessly puts others need ahead of their own for the sake of humanity.

Based on the book If It’s Not Impossible…: The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton by Barbara Winton, ONE LIFE chronicles the true story of Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Winton, a young London broker who visits Prague in December 1938. In a race against time, Winton convinces Trevor Chadwick and Doreen Warriner of the British Committee for Refugees in Czechoslovakia to rescue hundreds of predominantly Jewish children before Nazi occupation closes the borders.

Fifty years later Nicky (Sir Anthony Hopkins), haunted by the fate of the children he wasn’t able to bring to safety in England, appears on the hit BBC show “That’s Life!” which re-introduces him to some of those he helped rescue. It is with this unusual sense of closure that he finally begins to come to terms with the guilt and grief he carried while skyrocketing from anonymity to a national hero.

Sir Anthony Hopkins excels at conveying a characters’ inner most thoughts with a glance that has become so nuanced in his performances, one literally watches him disappear and literally melt into the persona of Nicky Winton.

Imagine being saddled with a lot of bureaucratic red tape, locating willing foster families for each child before they would be allowed into the country on little to no time. With the help of his tenacious mother (Helena Bohnam Carter) and some friends in the UK and Prague, who spend countless hours of pasting photos on the visas, Winton’s associates were able to fill eight trains with more than 600 children to England. The ninth train, scheduled to leave the day the war was declared, was halted by the Nazis invading Poland.

Babi Winton (Bonham Carter) leads a handful of women whose bravery during this time to show up and show out solidifying there is no progress without sacrifice.

“One Life” is tangible proof that a hero lies inside of everyone who decides when to unleash their unbridled courage within. By the time Winton passed away in 2015 at the age of 106, this self-proclaimed “ordinary man” had been widely recognized for his extraordinary deeds of rescuing 669 Jewish children from the Nazis, saving them from certain death giving the real life adage of if you see something – do something resonate stronger than ever. This Nikita Gill poem shared with me by Helena Bonham Carter during my interview sums it up best.

Tell them to be proud of every bit of themselves—
from their tiger stripes to the soft flesh of their thighs,
whether there is a little of them or a lot,
whether freckles cover their face or not,
whether their curves are plentiful or slim,
whether their hair is thick, curly, straight, long or short.

Tell them how they inherited
their ancestors, souls in their smiles,
that their eyes carry countries
that breathed life into history