Sarah's Key
Review
by Anthony Morris
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Sarah's Key
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For a while early on it looks like Sarah's Key just might be that rarest of things : a holocaust film with something new to say. Jumping between present-day Paris and the (initially) 1942 version, we follow two women in crisis.
In
1942 10 year-old Sarah (Melusine Mayance) and her Jewish parents are
rounded up and herded into the Velodrome d’Hiver, while today expat
American journalist Julia (Kristen Scott-Thomas) is writing a story
about what happened, only to discover the consequences linger to this
day. Of the two stories, Sarah's is the more obviously
dramatic : when the police arrived she locked her little brother in a
cupboard, and so she’s desperately trying to get back to him, first
while they're at the Velodrome then later when they're in a camp
waiting to be shipped off to Germany and beyond. Julia's is
the more complex, especially when it turns out that her French family's
flat was the one Sarah's family were thrown out of, but it doesn’t
resonate the way it’s clearly meant to. It's meant to show
that the shadow of the past is all around us; instead it just feels
like she’s a nosey journalist happy to dredge up other people’s dramas
out of nothing more than a blind desire to know. A meandering story that constantly changes tack doesn’t help the lack of focus.
Sarah's
story plays out long after the situation with her brother is resolved,
then it becomes her descendant’s problem, then Sarah's wider family
have their own dramas which simply don't work (not telling an elderly
relative is supposedly the whole reason for the family’s secrecy;
later we’re told she’s found out, but it’s never explained how). The
story of the Velodrome, where families were kept in appalling
conditions for days while Paris ignored them, is a compelling one; for
that alone Sarah’s Key is worth a look. 3 out
of 5
Sarah's Key
Australian release: 26th December,
2010
Official
Site: Sarah's Key
Cast: Kristin Scott Thomas, Mélusine Mayance, Frédéric Pierrot, Niels
Arestrup
Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner
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