| Golden Grahams |
THE RESCUER
ONE LIFE Anthony Hopkins plays a remarkable World War Two hero in this stirring biopic.
In 1988, a special edition of the BBC programme That’s Life! told the story of Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Winton, a British stockbroker who helped evacuate 669 predominantly Jewish children from Prague in the lead-up to World War Two. Winton, then almost 80, thought the show was a chance for him to share his experience with the nation, but it was really a surprise reunion, where dozens of those he helped save 50 years prior were waiting in the audience.
Director James Hawes says watching the moment where the real Winton realises what is happening makes him weep every time, and always left him wondering: ‘What’s the story that leads up to that moment in the That’s Life! studio?’ One Life, he tells Teasers, is an attempt to work this out.
‘The key thing is that so many people know that clip, so what we give people is much more than a retelling,’ says the director, whose credits include Black Mirror and Slow Horses. ‘We even dramatise it in a different way. We take it from Nicky’s point of view and then we give scale and history to the story that got him there.’
One Life focuses on the period leading up to the rescue, alongside Winton’s later years as a man haunted by keeping his past a secret for decades. Anthony Hopkins plays the older wartime hero and forms the ‘heart of a wonderful cast’, which includes Johnny Flynn (right) as a younger Winton, Jonathan Pryce as his friend Martin and Helena Bonham Carter as Winton’s ‘force of nature’ mother, Babette.
Telling the breadth of this story in an authentic way led Hawes and his team to film in as many real locations as possible across the UK and Prague. This decision had some unexpected repercussions, too, which Hawes says left them feeling they were ‘treading alongside ghosts’.
‘It’s about the pebble in the pond… Those ripples then continue’
JAMES HAWES
‘People from Winton’s past connected to the story would bump into the shoot or members of the crew would say, “My grandad was one of the children,”’ Hawes recalls. ‘That one action of that one man over those few months saved 669 kids. Six or seven thousand people are now alive because of what he did. It’s about the pebble in the pond… Those ripples then continue.’
Winton’s story may also remind audiences of another Oscar-winning biopic, but Hawes is reticent when Teasers brings up Schindler’s List.
‘Look, I’m a director, and there’s a guy called Spielberg hanging over there; I’m going to feel the pressure,’ he laughs. ‘It’s such a seminal piece of work by one of the all-time greatest directors, so I’m not even going to begin to hint at comparisons other than some faint overlaps in the story, and hopefully some of the emotion that goes with it.’
ONE LIFE OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 1 JANUARY 2024.