This is truly an exceptional piece of work. Having seen the trailer it could've easily been made to look and feel quite tacky but I was genuinely surprised and extremely impressed by what has been accomplished. Every step of the production was presented exactly as you would want from a time period piece and I don't recall seeing any cgi at all and certainly none which could've potentially shattered the illusion. The commitment of the actors, both past and present versions were magnificent and made you completely believe their situations. The story is an exceptional one and I'm glad that it has been told in exactly the way it was & it absolutely destroyed me & I don't think there was a dry eye left from anyone in the cinema screening that I watched it in. Anything which gives me the immediate emotional reaction that this did means that it deserves a full 5 stars.

This film runs on two parallel tracks. In 1938-39, young British stockbroker Nicholas Winton volunteers to spend one week in Prague helping the refugee organization there organize their files. He found children who had fled Germany or German-occupied Sudetenland, and decided that he needed to get them out to Britain. That involved finding foster parents, getting visas from initially reluctant bureaucrats, and raising money, not just for the trip, but a deposit for returning the children "when it was safe to do so". It ended when Britain declared war on Germany, and a British visa became worthless as protection against German authorities.

The other track is in 1987, when Nicky hands over his Prague scrapbook to a researcher. It included the photographs, names, and last known addresses of the children. The information went to a normally-fluffy British TV show, where Nicky was introduced to one of his "children" the show had found. That led to a follow-up show after many other "Nicky's children" contacted the TV show.

This story has been the subject of at least one documentary, but not yet brought to life as a drama. The cinematography was interesting, in that the color palette could immediately inform the viewer of the time period of the story. The 1987 scenes have the bigger stars, but the 1939 scenes form the bulk of the film, and are far more gripping.

I saw this at the world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Due the the actors' strike, the actors were not present, but they managed to assemble maybe a dozen of Nicky's children to see their own story on the screen.

Turn on the news and what do you see? Man's inhumanity to man. Ukraine, Gaza etc etc. It's enough to make you lose faith in the human race - or it would be were it not for the occasional story of humanity at its best.

In Czechoslovakia in 1938-9, a small group of people (Nicholas Winton is the best known as he was the last survivor of that group) are appalled by the plight of mainly Jewish refugees, and resolve to do something. Despite opposition from governments (German, Dutch, British and American) they manage to evacuate 669 children and provide them with foster families in the UK, where many of their descendants live to this day. A further 250 children were on a train that was scheduled to leave on the day war was declared. Two of them were still alive at the war's end.

Then the story was forgotten for more than forty years, until at last Nicholas Winton was given the recognition he deserved (not the least astonishing part of the story is that Robert Maxwell did one decent thing in his life).

The film is in two parts; the younger Winton being played by Johnny Flynn, the older by Anthony Hopkins. Both give stand-out performances. Also excellent is Helena Bonham Carter as Winton's mother. The scene where she tells a bureaucrat what she thinks of him is priceless.

But the most important aspect of the film is its message. Human kindness is still a force in the world. Everyone can make a difference. No good deed, be it great or small, is ever wasted.

If only governments were run by people like Nicholas Winton.