Real-life story of man who saved children from Nazis is heartbreaking

ONE LIFE ★★★★

(PG) 110 minutes

In the opening scenes of One Life, Nicholas Winton (Anthony Hopkins) is in his eighties, leading a seemingly tranquil life with his wife, Grete (Lena Olin), in suburban Surrey. But the clutter in his study is a revealing reflection of the tumult in his head. His mind is full of ghosts who are reviving memories of the refugees he helped to rescue in Prague during World War II.

The film’s producers, Iain Canning and his Australian business partner Emile Sherman, first approached Winton 15 years ago to ask if they could put his story on the screen, but they found a modest man uninterested in making himself famous to a new generation. It was only after his death they got the go-ahead from his daughter, who had written a book about his war work.

The film flips back and forth in time, as Winton recalls his first visit to Prague in 1938. The city is already full of refugees on the run from the German takeover of the Sudetenland and the young Winton (Johnny Flynn) – Nicky to his friends – is appalled at the sight of so many children lacking food and shelter in the middle of a European winter. Busy getting the Nazis’ political targets out of the country, his fellow refugee workers, Doreen Warriner (Romola Garai) and Trevor Chadwick (Alex Sharpe), believe it will be too hard to evacuate children as well. But Nicky isn’t listening. His optimism is remarkable, his stubbornness miraculous.

Inspired by the Kindertransport initiative already under way in Germany and Austria, he returns to London and calls on his like-minded and equally effective mother, Babi (Helena Bonham Carter), a small bulldozer powered by charm. Together, they recruit volunteers to help raise money, find foster families for the children and canvas support from the British government in simplifying visa rules.

The Prague sequences are heartbreaking. Garai is especially good as the heroic Doreen, who stays on in the city long after the Nazis’ arrival, but it’s Hopkins who anchors the film’s emotional centre with his slow burn of a performance. He’s always been able to use silence to express all that he’s not saying, and Winton camouflages his passion and his anguish with the matter of factness of someone who is naturally averse to making a fuss.

There’s something very moving in watching him trying to hold back the tears when he’s finally made aware of the difference he has made to the lives of so many people. Until then, he can do nothing but dwell on the failures – the children he didn’t manage to save. He still has their photos. Their faces gaze at him from the old scrapbook he keeps amid the mess in his study.

The film has a rousing finish made all the more potent at a recent Sydney screening where descendants of “Nicky’s children” were on hand to show their appreciation.

One Life is released on December 26.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.