Wednesday 1^st May – One Life (12)

Starring Anthony Hopkins, Lena Olin, Johnny Flynn, Helen Bonham Carter and many others

“Save One Life. Save The World”

The true story of Sir Nicholas 'Nicky' Winton, a young London broker who, in the months leading up to World War II, rescued 669 predominantly Jewish 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 realized 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 a live BBC television 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.

This poignant and emotional biographical drama follows the life of humanitarian Nicholas Winton, who helped hundreds of children escape German-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II. (BBFC)

Most of us in UK probably know the story of Sir Nicholas Winton and how he organised the transport of 669 Czech Jewish children to relative safety in the UK in the face of the Nazi onslaught in the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia. One of the big positives of this film is that it just tells the story. It clearly shows that this is a team effort led by Winton's persistence and determination; it does not make him out to be the sole hero. However, as important as the evacuations is, the story about how it came into the British consciousness via the quirky 1970s BBC TV show, 'That's Life.' It truly is something that needed to be told, then and now, and is done so in a suitably serious but heartwarming manner. Do go and see it and do be prepared for the final scenes. (Review on IMDB)

Tickets at £5 available from The Shop, The White Hart and Essence Hair & Beauty from mid-April