Synopsis
On the night of 16 July 1942, ten year old Sarah and her parents are being arrested and transported to the Velodrome d'Hiver in Paris where thousands of other jews are being sent to get deported. Sarah however managed to lock her little brother in a closet just before the police entered their apartment. Sixty years later, Julia Jarmond, an American journalist in Paris, gets the assignment to write an article about this raid, a black page in the history of France. She starts digging archives and through Sarah's file discovers a well kept secret about her own in-laws.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Kristin Scott ThomasJulia Jarmond
- Mélusine MayanceSarah Starzynski, child
- Niels ArestrupJules Dufaure
- Frédéric PierrotBertrand Tezac
- Michel DuchaussoyEdouard Tezac
- Dominique FrotGenneviève Dufaure
- Natasha MashkevichRywka Starzynski
- Gisèle CasadesusMamé Tezac
- Aidan QuinnWilliam Rainsferd
- Sarah BerRachel
Recommendations
- 90
The Hollywood Reporter
The movie gathers momentum with a steady, assured pace, accumulating incidents, characters, secrets and lies until the rush of events is absolutely transfixing. Cinema can sometimes rival the novel in compulsive intensity and Sarah's Key is one such example. - 75
Observer
Director Gilles Paquet-Brenner has done an elegant job of reducing a complex piece with many components into a riveting narrative that grabs you by the lapels and refuses to loosen its grip. - 75
Entertainment Weekly
The Holocaust scenes are wrenching, the past-meets-present dialectics less so. - 70
Variety
Working in a classical style and genre that rep a far cry from his previous work ("Pretty Things," "Gomez and Tavares, "UV"), Pacquet-Brenner's direction is always respectful if never entirely subtle. - 60
Time Out
When Sarah's Key leans into the horror (as it should), it's harrowing. Alas, that's only half the time. - 60
Boxoffice Magazine
That Sarah's Key never quite descends into melodrama is a credit to the strength of Scott Thomas' performance, more than to the writing. - 60
Movieline
Though the picture is lovingly and often quite strikingly shot and styled, there are too many dangling and swiftly clipped threads for the film to amount to more than another tasteful Sunday matinee set against one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. - 50
IndieWire
Sarah's need to save her brother provides the initial raison d'être, but with the mystery is resolved early on Sarah's Key turns into a flimsy meditation on grief.
