“Whoever saves one life saves the world entire.” That familiar phrase is evoked in the title of the moving new British film drama “One Life,” which throws a spotlight on Nicholas Winton, who has been called the “British Schindler,” and saved far more than one life in the early days of World War II.

Anthony Hopkins plays the older Winton, who in 1938 had organized a Kindertransport to get hundreds of children, mostly Jewish ones, out of Prague ahead of the Nazis, children who had fled there with their families after Hitler seized the Sudetenland “One Life” not only tells the story of Winton’s heroic efforts to rescue these refugee children, but it also tells of the story of the late-in-life recognition he received for doing so.

Johnny Flynn plays the younger Nicky Winton who we meet in flashback sequences, along with Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Nicky’s feisty, determined mother Babette (nicknamed Babi), who was among the many people who helped save those young lives. The cast also includes Jonathan Pryce and Lena Olin.

Winton was not the only person who made the rescue possible, but he was the last one left when the heroic deeds finally came to light. Trevor Chadwick (Alex Sharp) and Doreen Warriner (Romola Garai) of the British Committee for Refugees in Czechoslovakia, helped to rescue hundreds of predominantly Jewish children before Nazi occupation closed the borders. But it was Winton who put in motion the rescue that others told him was impossible.

“One Life” opens with retired banker Nicky Winton (Hopkins) living a quiet, comfortable rural life but being encouraged by his wife Grete (Lena Olin) to finally clear out all the clutter and old files filling his overstuffed office. One old briefcase is something she knows will be hard for husband to part with.

While his wife is on an out-of-town trip, Nicky decides to tackle the long-delayed task, and we learn that the briefcase contains a “scrapbook” that is a record of what Winton did during the war. He thinks that record should be preserved, not stashed away in a library. He wants it to be somewhere people can access it and learn from it, especially charitable groups facing a near-impossible task.

In flashbacks to 1938, we meet young Nicky, an accountant with a London investment banking firm who has a strong commitment to doing good work, something his mother Babi raised him to do. Nicky has taken time off work to travel to Prague to help with refugees who fled when the Nazis took nearby Sudetenland.

Just as Nicky is set to leave, things get riskier in Czechoslovakia, yet he goes anyway. In Prague, Chadwick and Warriner of the British Committee for Refugees put Nicky to work organizing their files. But when Nicky visits the squalid, crowded neighborhood where the refugees are living, and meets some children suffering there, he is moved.

Although Warriner tells Nicky that saving them is practically impossible, Nicky is determined to try to get them out of the country. “If something is not impossible, then there must be a way to do it,” he says. One problem is getting lists of refugee children, as the several organizations helping them fear the lists will fall into Nazi hands, so they won’t share them. Frustrated, Nicky eventually meets with the leader of one group, Rabbi Hertz (Samuel Finzi), but the rabbi doesn’t want to share the lists with Winton, who was raised in the Church of England. When Winton reveals that he had Jewish grandparents on both sides, it reassures the rabbi, opening the door to start the Kindertransport. Back in England, Nicky’s resourceful mother Babi starts working on permits and foster families for the children.

The film moves back and forth in time between wartime 1938 and the film’s present in 1988, when what Nicky did during the war finally comes to light. Both portions are moving and have emotional moments but ending with the 1988 portion makes the film particularly uplifting.

Hopkins is splendid as the modest, kindly Nicholas Winton, who assumes that the documents he has preserved are important, recording in detail the people and actions of the Kindertransport. He doesn’t see what he did as heroic. He is always quick to mention the efforts of others, and he is wracked with remorse about the children he couldn’t save when the Nazis suddenly shut down the border.

The rest of the cast is also excellent, but Bonham Carter is particularly delightful as Nicky’s strong-willed, sharp-tongued mother, and her performance adds a needed bit of humor.

The photography is lovely, and the attention to details in both time periods makes immersion in the story easy. The colors are warm but muted, and the scenes in the refugee settlement with the ragged children, some with pleading eyes and others with irrepressible childish energy, are touching and heartbreaking, evoking Dickens.

“One Life” is a polished, moving period drama featuring a fine cast, that highlights an inspiring story about a man who deserves to be better known for saving hundreds of children, simply because he refused to believe it was impossible.

“One Life” is currently showing at several local theaters including Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac, Marcus Des Peres, Chesterfield Galaxy and Ronnie’s theaters.