one life…

I went along to the Watershed this afternoon to see “One Life”, directed by James Hawes… my first trip to the cinema this year.
The film is based on the true story of a young British stockbroker named Nicholas Winton (played by Johnny Flynn, and in later life by Anthony Hopkins) who visited Czechoslovakia in the late1930s to see with his own eyes the humanitarian crisis emerging among the exiled Jewish community in that country.
He was so shocked by the scenes he witnessed that, with the assistance of his mother, Babette (Helena Bonham Carter) and others, he ended up helping to secure (against the most appalling odds) the rescue of 669 children.
In the later section, set in the 1980s, Winton has retired and, in the course of clearing out his study, comes across a battered briefcase containing the names and pictures of the children whose escapes from Prague he’d facilitated and realises its historical significance and that it probably needed to be passed on to an appropriate authority. Cutting a long story short, the Kindertransport is taken up by the media (thanks to Robert Maxwell of all people!), amongst others, including the “That’s Life!” television programme.
I was already familiar with the basic facts behind the story - and it REALLY is an amazing testament to Winton’s determination, compassion and humanity. It’s certainly a very ‘worthy’ film… but not, in my view, a great one.
What did strike me quite markedly was the fact that history was currently repeating itself – in terms of wartime child deaths.
My friend Penny has also seen the film and pointed out that some 15,000 children were killed in concentration camps in Czechoslovakia during the course of WW2… and that over 10,000 children are estimated as having been killed in Palestine since October 2023 alone.
A very sobering thought.
PS: Very weirdly, I noticed that our old friends from Thame (via USA), Cheryl and Clive Gissing, were ‘extras’ in the “That’s Life” sequence at the end of the film… and then had a vague memory that one of families might have a direct connection with the Winton story (or perhaps it was just that they make attractive ‘extras’!)?