Schindler's List remains a hallmark of cinema, its compelling tale still lingering in the memory 30 years on. But there are other inspirational true stories of lives being saved, and one is headed to cinemas in January, starring Anthony Hopkins. Check out the trailer for One Life below…
Directed by James Hawes and adapted Lucinda Coxon and Nick Drake, from Barbara Winton's book If It’s Not Impossible… The Life Of Sir Nicholas Winton, the film as you might surmise from the tome's title, follows the inspirational work of Sir Nicholas.
Nicholas "Nicky" Winton was a young London broker who, in the months leading up to World War II, rescued 669 children from the Nazis. Nicky visited Prague in December 1938 and found families who had fled the rise of the Nazis in Germany and Austria, living in desperate conditions with little or no shelter and food, and under threat of Nazi invasion.
He immediately realised it was a race against time. How many children could he and the team rescue before the borders closed?
Fifty years later, it’s 1988 and Nicky lives haunted by the fate of the children he wasn’t able to bring to safety in England; always blaming himself for not doing more. It’s not until live BBC show, That’s Life!, surprises him by introducing him to some surviving children — now adults – that he finally begins to come to terms with the guilt and grief he had carried for five decades.
Johnny Flynn plays the younger Nicky with Hopkins as the reflective older version, while the cast also includes Helena Bonham Carter, Jonathan Pryce, Lena Olin, Romola Garai and Alex Sharp.
One Life will be the AMEX Gala at this year's London Film Festival on 12 October before its general release on New Year's Day. Our prediction? Have tissues ready, because the cinemas could get awfully dusty…