The movie One Life starring Anthony Hopkins is coming in February. The film tells the story of Nicholas Winton, better known as the British Schindler, who saved 600, mostly Jewish, children from the Nazis.
Hopkins is not the only star in the film, the cast includes exclusive names such as Lena Olin, Jonathan Pryce and Helena Bonham Carter.
However, the fact that the theme of the work, Jewish children, was not even mentioned in the announcements caused great indignation. ( Well, I wonder why? – editor. ) In the description of the Holocaust biographical film on several websites
They wrote "Central European children" instead of "Jewish children".
As a result of the outrage, the film's marketing material was modified.
"Predominantly Jewish"
Warner Bros. has not commented on the matter, but Variety magazine understands that following the criticism, the company has rewritten all of its official promotional materials and now refers to the children as "predominantly Jewish." About a hundred of the more than 600 Czechoslovak children were political refugees.
A source close to the film stated that the term "Central European" was not given by the film's makers or distributors, but probably by an unauthorized third party who wrote a summary on IMDb, from where HMV (the post has since been deleted) and the independent sites took it over. He added that the events of October 7, 2023 - during which Hamas killed more than 1,400 people in Israel - did not affect the film's marketing material. ( So, but - ed. )
In the press release of the British Film Institute (BFI) in August, they did not mention that they were Jewish children. They wrote:
"One Life tells the true story of Sir Nicholas 'Nicky' Winton, played by Hopkins, a young London broker who saved 669 children from the Nazis in the months leading up to World War II."
Since then, the text has been changed on IMDb, Warner Bros and one of the largest British cinema chains, Vue.
Civilians. Info montage
The story of the rescue operation
As a young stockbroker, Sir Nicholas Winton organized rescue operations from London after visiting Czechoslovakia in 1938 and seeing camps for people fleeing the Germans. In nine months, he managed to get 669 Jewish children from Prague to London with the permission of the British government.
The film One Life deals with the story of the rescue operations, which remained unknown until his wife disclosed Sir Nicholas's old diary, gathering dust in the attic, 50 years after the events. It contained the details and the names of the rescued children.
Variety reports that Winton's act was not widely known until he appeared on the British talk show That's Life in 1988. When host Esther Rantzen asked if anyone in the audience was in the room thanks to Winton, most of the audience stood up:
Rantzen arranged for the survivors and their descendants to be present and surprise him.
The scene plays a central role in the new film.
Featured Image: Warner Bros.
