One of the more extraordinary films out of last year’s Toronto International Film Festival was ironically extra ordinary. “One Life” could easily have been another World War II survival film, full of heroes and do-gooders. It’s certainly a film with familiar themes and patterns, yet the performance from two-time Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins in a present-day supporting role is emotionally captivating. A crowd pleaser for sure, the press screening back in September left hardly a dry eye. The decision was made to push the film, which could have awards potential, to a 2024 release. “One Life” is an engaging piece of history as seen through the eyes of an ordinary man who saved hundreds of children.

In 1937, a young Nicholas Winton (Johnny Flynn) was an average stockbroker from London. As the news grew dire about the eminent Nazi invasion through Czechoslovakia, he puts his own life on hold in 1938 to witness the devastating situation in Prague in person. He assembles a group of people raising efforts to rescue children from the country and bring them to Great Britain by train. His mother (Helena Bonham Carter) was back home, also working around the clock, through connections and red tape to ensure the children could be safely and legally moved from one country to another. Now a senior (Anthony Hopkins), he reflects on those he couldn’t save, that one train that went missing, haunts his dreams.