One Life: A Cinematic History Lesson

“One Life” director James Hawes shocked the audience with a heartwarming surprise that was worth more than seeing the actors on stage. 

 “One Life” is about the life of Nicholas Winton, a British humanitarian or the “Schindler of Britain" who was involved in transferring mostly Jewish children at risk from nazi occupied Czechoslovakia to Great Britain. 

Time jumps in the film to depict a young Winston’s travels to and from Czechoslovakia, his older self is seen reminiscing on his time helping the youth which makes him raise the question, “Do you ever wonder what happened to the children?” Winton kept a book of all the kids who he was able to save and passed the book onto a friend. The book ends up being sent to the BBC program “That’s Life.” 

The show invited Winton to be a guest, knowing that he was going to be featured for his work during WWII. What he didn’t know was that one of the kids or “Nicky’s Family” as they call themselves would be sitting next to him. Winton appeared two more times in the film on “That’s Life” but the last time much to his surprise the whole audience stood. 

At the end of the film Hawes came back out to the audience as expected. Instead of sitting down to answer questions Hawes remained standing and recited a quote from the film, “Who owes their life to Nicholas Winton?” In the center of the room a woman stood up and was announced as one of “Winton’s Children” (another name they call themselves). Hawes then urged everyone else to stand up whose life was saved and another crowd of around 30 people stood up this time with photos of their loved ones. The amount of emotions and history in the room was unbelievable leaving almost no one with a dry eye as they exited the theater.