Sarah’s Key

Movie: Sarah’s Key

Genre: historical drama

Synopsis: This is a French movie with English subtitle. Julia (Kristin Scott Thomas) is an American journalist living in Paris with her French husband and daughter.  They are moving into an apartment that her husband’s family has owned since 1942.  Julia works for a magazine and is writing an article about a little known period during the German occupation of Paris when French police rounded thousands of French Jews to be sent off to death camps.  Julia stumbles upon a connection between her husband’s family’s apartment and a Jewish family that was one of the ones sent off to the death camps.  The movie has two timelines that it follows, one follows Julia as she tries to unearth what happened to the family and what part her husband’s family played, the other is in 1942 and follows the Jewish family during their ordeal.

My two cents: I only stumbled upon this movie after hearing Kristin Scott Thomas interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air.  The movie is absolutely gripping.  It brings to life the unspeakable horror experienced by the Jewish as they were rounded up – as husbands were wrenched from their families and then children wrenched from their mothers. This is one of those movies that everyone needs to see if for no other reason than so that the horror of the Nazis is never forgotten.  I can just about guarantee that you will not be leaving as soon as the credits start rolling . . . you will be sitting in your seat thinking about what you just saw.

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