You’d need a heart of stone not to be touched by this extraordinary true story of Nicholas Winton, the “British Schindler”, and by the simplicity and heartfelt directness with which it’s told by screenwriters Nick Drake and Lucinda Coxon and director James Hawes. It’s a story of wartime Europe and postwar memory, and also a noble and inspired moment in the history of British popular TV.
Anthony Hopkins plays Winton, a stockbroker in prosperous retirement in the 1980s who, after some nagging from his wife Grete (Lena Olin), is clearing out clutter and finally concentrates on something he’s been yearning and dreading to re-examine: a scrapbook with details of the 669 Czech Jewish children he and other humanitarians saved against incredible odds from the Nazis in the late 30s, without any historian knowing. This involved raising money, badgering government departments for visas, organising foster care; his own Kindertransport in fact. Johnny Flynn plays Winton as the young pro-refugee activist and Helena Bonham Carter packs a mighty thespian punch as Flynn’s formidable no-nonsense mother Babette, who runs his campaign from London.
