ONE OF MY favorite literary quotes comes from David Mitchell’s novel Cloud Atlas. When Adam Ewing, a 19th-century notary from California, decides to become an abolitionist and protest the transatlantic slave trade, he imagines his father-in-law declaring that Ewing is condemning himself to a meaningless life that will amount to nothing more than a drop in the ocean. Ewing responds, “Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?”
I thought about that quote while watching One Life, a 2023 film based on the real life of Nicholas Winton, a British stockbroker who, in the year before World War II, rescued more than 600 Jewish refugee children in Prague by relocating them to England in what came to be called the Czech Kindertransport. Winton’s determination was indeed amazing, but as the drama shows, his efforts depended on many people who did what they could to help — many drops in an ocean of good.
One Life switches between Winton in his 20s during the war (Johnny Flynn) and Winton in his 70s (Anthony Hopkins) when he’s reintroduced to some of the children he saved, now adults with children and grandchildren of their own. The young Winton’s story begins as Germany encroaches on Czechoslovakia, sending many families in the German-occupied Sudetenland fleeing for safety to as-yet-unoccupied Prague. Winton heads to the refugee camps in Prague to help with recovery efforts.
Conditions in these camps are heartbreaking. Families relocate with no resources and endure freezing weather in makeshift shacks. Children starve in the streets. Winton works with the British government and area synagogues to temporarily relocate children to homes in England where families care for them until it’s safe for them to return.
Through it all, Winton depends on loved ones and willing allies. Many people donate money anonymously. His mother (Helena Bonham Carter) pesters British officials to process the children’s papers. Winton’s friends in Prague accompany the children on their journey. There are also many unnamed people who opened their homes — some hosted children for the remainder of the war and beyond as the children’s families were arrested or killed in concentration camps.
When we look at all the destruction in the world, it’s easy to feel discouraged and that our individual voices don’t accomplish anything. Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops? Movies like One Life give us practical reminders that even small gestures can make a life-saving difference. The world needs Nicholas Wintons to mobilize in monumental ways, but it takes the work of many — leaders, workers, and allies alike — to make a better future.
Abby Olcese is a freelance film critic and writer based in Missouri. You can find her on Twitter @abbyolcese.
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