Sarah’s Key
Elle s’appelait Sarah
Directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner
France, 2010
Cornerhouse, 7 August 2011
Kristin Scott Thomas is terrific in this well-crafted but somewhat contrived film.
She plays Julia, a journalist investigating the deportation of Jews from France in the 1940s, and matters strike close to home when she realises that a Jewish family, one of the unfortunates, had lived in the flat that her family intends to move into.
In a way, the Holocaust is not the direct subject of the film, but rather events surrounding it and following on in its wake. All such terrible atrocities have an echo and wreck havoc in their aftermath. The survivors are victims too.
A good solid film, despite being ever so slightly manipulative.
Jildy Sauce 