The Holocaust story is wrenching; the past-meets-present, full of melodrama and coincidence, is less so. Nonetheless, “Sarah’s Key,” a gripping tale of survival, is wonderfully acted and an engrossing narrative. In Paris in 1942 the French police round up 10-year-old Sarah (Mélusine Mayance) and her family. To save her little brother, Sarah locks him in a closet and carefully guards the key. Her journey starts at the stifling Vélodrome d’Hiver, where Jews were packed and made to wait for transport to German camps. Sixty or so years later, Julia (an excellent Kristin Scott Thomas), an American journalist married to a Frenchman, researches an article about that roundup. Because of the article and a coincidence of property, Julia starts to obsess about Sarah and her fate, even as her own life begins to fall apart.
Sarah’s story is horrific. She tries desperately to return home to free her brother, but obstacles arise at every attempt. As you wait with baited breath to find out what happens to her and as the tension builds, the film cuts away to Julia’s story. Julia is pregnant and wants to keep her baby, but her husband doesn’t. And what does his family know about the previous residents of the apartment that’s been in the family for years? It’s obvious that Julia’s problems don’t compare to Sarah’s, but Julia’s quest is a vehicle to teach about the Holocaust in France and to demonstrate how dredging up the past has ripple effects on the present. While Sarah is the heartbreak in “Sarah’s Key,” Julia represents the belief that the truth must always come first. Director Gilles Paquet-Brenner has done an exemplary job of turning Tatiana de Rosnay’s best selling novel into a riveting movie. Some subtitles. 7/24/11
1 comment:
This is the best film of the year for me. Excelent story, very suspenseful and well acted. This film is a must see!
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