Sarah’s Key (Gilles Paquet-Brenner, 2010): France

Viewed by: Demi Mellett. Viewed at the: Santa Barbara Film Festival 2011

At the Film Festival this year I saw plenty of films. Sarah’s Key directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, was by far one of my favorites. The acting, lighting, and cinematography were all done fantastically. This movie was not only interesting because of the factual history but also because of the truth-seeking journey the writers take the audience on. The writers and producers do an excellent job of unfolding the lives of two families and the secrets hidden in their walls.   This is a heart-felt story that anyone can relate to.

The film starts with two children named Sarah and Michel playing and giggling under the covers in bed together when they hear a knock on the door. Quickly, the scene changes from the bright and airy room where the children are playing to a dark and dreary living room where their mother is standing.  Sarah, played by Mélusine Mayance, runs out of the room and tells her brother to wait for her.  When she sees the police questioning her mother she begins to panic.  The police continue to interrograte Sarah’s mother about where her husband and son are.  Sarah, thinking quick on her toes, lies to the police and tells them that her father and little brother are staying in the country.  When the police tell her and her mother to gather their belongings, Sarah runs to the bedroom and locks her little brother in a secret closet in their room, not knowing completely what is about to happen.

Set in Paris, France, present time, a woman named Julia Armond, played by Kristin Scott Thomas, is about to move into the Tezac family’s apartment with her husband, Bertrand Tezac, played by Frederic Pierrot.  Julia’s husband inherited the apartment that has been in his family for 50 years.  The apartment didn’t quite suite their modern needs so they are preparing to undergo a remodel before moving into the apartment. Julia is an accomplished American journalist, married to a French man and has resided in France for the past 20 years.  In fact, she is vying for a 10 page spread on the vel’ d’Hiv’ children of 1942.

What unfolds is astounding!  The directors do an incredible re-enactment of the tourment that the Jews had to endure during the irreparable damage that the French police acted out.  The visuals of the pain and suffering felt so raw, as if you could feel the pain as your own.  There was an grey overtone to entire film, never really seeing any bright light as you did in the first scene with the children playing.

Like The Boy in the Stiped Pajamas, this film is a painful reminder of our history’s past and the unnecessary tourment that tens of thousands of indivudals had to endure. I believe this film is worth seeing because it not only gives you a peak into our past, but also takes you through the lives of several generations of two families and how this incident effected them all. This film might be better suited for adults who enjoy films that bounce back and forth from past to present.