La famille de Nicky

I think I cried through most of the movie. Extremely touching story. A must see.

One of the best documentaries I've ever seen. Well made.Everyone needs to watch it. It has the life lessons...

There are essentially two kinds of documentaries. The first turns you on to a story you knew nothing about. The second documents an incident you've heard of -- maybe even have read about or studied -- but uncovers facts that are not only new to you but also put a completely different perspective on what you thought really happened. Call it a revelatory experience. This film from Slovak co-writer/director/producer Matej Minac and co-writer/producer/editor Patrik Pass is a triumphant example of the latter.

Nicky's Family tells the dramatic story of the Kindertransport, a mission to save children from Central and Eastern Europe as Hitler rose to power in the late 1930s by secreting them onto trains to the United Kingdom. The film focuses on one man, Nicholas Winton ("Nicky"), who singlehandedly rescued 669 primarily Jewish children from Czechoslovakia in just a few short months. Winton, a wealthy but unassuming British entrepreneur without many political concerns, was off on a ski trip to Switzerland in 1938 when he changed plans to meet up with his friend Martin Blake in Prague, who saw the swastikas on the horizon and was helping Jewish refugees out of the country. The Nazi campaign was beginning to exert its influence on the local population, turning neighbor against neighbor as Hitler's disciples marginalized those who didn't fit his Master Plan -- not just Jews, but also Czechs and Slavs, Gypsies, and homosexuals.

As homes and businesses were destroyed or commandeered by the Nazis, and as unwitting, otherwise law-abiding citizens began to be crammed into ghettos and shipped off to transit camps on the way to more horrific locations as yet unknown, families were often broken up to fulfill the needs of the regime. It quickly became apparent to the 29-year-old Winton that there was a narrow window of opportunity in this pre-war period during which he could use his connections, communication skills, and business acumen to help shepherd the doomed children out of the country before the fate of these innocents was sealed.

Nicky's Family reveals not only the tenacity with which Winton pursued this seemingly impossible task but also the tremendous luck involved in such a massive undertaking. It achieves this through a cleverly constructed three-layered approach: narrative recreations mixed with poignant archival footage and present-day interviews with the survivors. Minac and Pass have crafted a literate script that captures every nuance, each dramatic twist and turn along the way towards freedom for these children, without sacrificing historical accuracy. There's a wealth of information packed into this movie but it never overwhelms the viewer or feels rushed.

Slovak cinematographer Dodo Simoncic has shot 40 theatrical and television motion pictures, and his experience shows in the almost-palpable sensitivity which leaps off the screen in the telling of Nicky's achievement. The recreated historical scenes look breathtakingly authentic, unlike similarly structured documentaries which often resemble amateur home videos more than serious, professional films. Shooting locations for this sprawling epic, filmed over the course of almost six years, include the Czech Republic, France, Great Britain, Slovakia, Israel, the USA, Canada, Hungary, Cambodia, and Denmark. The original score by composer Janusz Stoklosa is magnificently haunting and perfectly matches each time and place as the story unfolds. This was clearly a labor of love for the production team. The reenactment cast is outstanding, led by Michal Slaný's heartwarming performance as Nicky -- Britain's "Oskar Schindler." Actual survivors, witnesses, family, and friends brought in for interviews were not shy at all in relating their experiences (except the ever humble Sir Nicholas himself).

The details of how Winton was able to save so many, and have such an impact on the world today, were lost to history for a half century. But how we have come to know "Nicky's" story, as well as what it took to save the 669, is best discovered in the viewing of the film -- the awe-inspiring undertaking, filled with happy accidents as well as cunning craftsmanship, needs to be seen to be believed. It's all in Nicky's Family, and viewers will be moved to tears by what one man was able to accomplish, and what those he saved -- and their children, and children's children -- have done to repay his generosity and kindness.

At age 102, reluctantly, even now, he finds himself surrounded by extended families who, quite literally, would not exist today if not for a simple idea. "If something isn't blatantly impossible there must be a way of doing it," Winton believed. One man's determination to make a difference grew into an odyssey that has left a legacy of generations performing acts of kindness, saving exponentially more human beings than Winton ever imagined when those first trains left Prague.

========= UPDATE: Sir Nicholas Winton passed away on July 1. 2015 at the age of 106. May his kind soul rest in peace.

While the story of Nicholas Winton is relatively well known in the UK today, many people outside the country still have no idea who he is and why he's recently become famous. This story is about how this man's actions just before World War Two have made a huge impact on the world today.

Back in very late 1938, Winton was traveling across Europe. He happened to go to Czechoslovakia instead of his original choice, Switzerland. When he arrived in Prague, he was amazed at the virulence of the new Nazi regime against the Jews and he was one of the few outsiders who recognized this for what it was. Most at the time thought the anti- Semitism would just blow over--Winton recognized that it could mean death to all these people. Some of the Jews in Czechoslovakia also thought that the Nazis intended to kill them and soon Winton organized a scheme to get as many Jewish children out of Nazi-controlled Czechoslovakia as they could. All in all, he was responsible for organizing an effort which saved almost 700 children--sending them off to live in the UK for the duration of the war. For this, some folks have referred to him as 'Britain's Schindler'.

Oddly, Winton's efforts went mostly unnoticed after the war and Winton himself didn't talk about it. In fact, he didn't even tell his wife until they were very, very elderly. She was amazed and decided to do something about it--and she went to the BBC and other agencies to talk about her husband's pre-war activities. The story resonated with the TV service and soon they began contacting as many of the surviving refugees that Winton's efforts saved in order to honor the man. Then, in his upper 90s, Winton was finally publicly recognized for his actions on television.

However, the film is NOT just about Winton. While he is very important to the beginning and ending of the film, so much fills in the middle portion of the documentary. Had it been just about Winton, it would have been an exceptional picture. Instead, it also focuses on the children--their experiences at the time and their lives after the war. Additionally, like the analogy they give of a stone being tossed into the water, the 'ripples' created by these lives is what makes the film so incredibly special. There is also a lot of focus is on children today throughout the world who are now celebrating Winton's legacy by giving back to others--and in effect, these are all members of 'Nicky's family'. The many volunteer activities kids do today as well as a huge celebration of Winton and the Czech refugees make the film magical to watch--and will definitely bring a few tears to your eyes. So, while the story is incredibly sad since the parents of these refugee children died horribly, this isn't the end of the story--there is hope and goodness.

So who is the audience for this film? I'd say just about anyone. Because the film is careful to thoroughly explain Nazi anti-Semitism, the climate of the late 1930s as well as the Holocaust, it's excellent for kids who don't yet know about WWII and the massacres. And, it's also appropriate because although it talks about these horrors, it lacks the extremely gory images you might find in many documentaries about the Holocaust. Now I am not being critical of films which do--but because this one doesn't, parents can rest assured that the kids will learn about these events without worrying about there being age inappropriate content. As for adults, they, too, will enjoy the film and draw great inspiration from the folks in the Nicky's Family. All in all, it's one of the most inspiring and heart-felt films I have seen in a long, long time. Be sure to watch it with a box of Kleenex handy.

I didn't know what to expect from this movie. After viewing so many Holocaust related films over the years, the themes seem to melt into one another. In my searches, I've learned about the name and location of the camps, the names of the most terrible people, and the sociology of a nation that surprisingly contracted, almost overnight, a deep mental illness that it did not wish to free itself from. That illness was hate.

This movie, however, after the first half of it, kept me in tears. I am a man who finds it extremely difficult to cry, except on occasions when I watch a touching movie or read a heartfelt book. Without those avenues, I am unable to shed a tear. But this film was so completely able to bring out of me tears by witnessing the impact the good deeds of one man can cause through a kind of domino effect.

Nicholas Winton, still alive today at 105, is a man worthy of all the honors bestowed on him. He is a hero of the highest caliber due to his unflinching commitment to save the lives of 700 Czech children during the advance of the Third Reich into Czechoslovakia in 1938.

What he did was provide for these children English families to adopt them. Tirelessly he worked to sometimes forge papers in order to save children he barely knew, all out of an altruistic character not often seen in stock brokers, which he was prior to making a visit with a friend to inspect for himself what Hitler was causing within Czechoslovakia. That visit changed his life forever, for the good of hundreds of Czech children.

Nicky wrote hundreds of letters seeking aid from all countries, and fashioned pictorial listings of all the kids for selection by their future parents, but only one country was willing to open their hearts to these desperate children, England.

Because of his work, Nicky now has a "family" of some 5800 offspring from the grown children he arranged to secure passage to a new life in England. The kindness of the English people shown to these children makes me extremely proud of British countrymen and women. It was stated on the film, that the poorest of English people were the most compassionate and loving.

Watch the documentary, but be sure to have Kleenex sitting by you as you will, without a doubt, be very moved.