In Sarah’s Key, an American journalist marries the Frenchman of her dreams and years later they move into a place that his family had lived in years before. But her research on the Vélodrome d’Hive roundup of Jews during World War II uncovers a connection to her new home, a connection that leads her on a desperate search for the truth of what really went on in Paris in that terrible time.
A bit of back-story for those of you who, like me, had never heard of this period in history. The Vélodrome d’Hive roundup in France in 1942 was when French police — supposedly in an attempt to remain autonomous from the German government during the French occupation — rounded up people of Jewish ancestry and put them in the “Vel’ d’Hiv”. This lasted for days, with no fresh air, no bathrooms and very little water. In the movie, a modern day researcher calls the roundup “the New Orleans Superdome during Katrina, times a thousand.” The individuals that were rounded up (well, the people that survived) were eventually taken to internment and extermination camps. In Sarah’s Key, this awful bit of history plays out in two ways; through the eyes of modern day American ex-pat Julia Jarmond, and through Sarah Starzynski, a young child whose family was a part of the roundup. More information on the plot twists and turns of Sarah’s Key would ruin the movie’s central mystery, and that’d be a shame.
But Sarah’s Key isn’t just a mystery that sheds light on a tragedy that is little known in the US, it’s also as an amazing character piece. Kristin Scott Thomas’ Julia Jarmond must put aside all she’s known in order to get to the truth, and the deeper into her research she gets, she finds herself on the path to self-discovery that she had been pushing aside. It’s an amazing performance by the British actress, who not only had to put herself through the emotional wringer for this role, but had to do it while speaking French and Americanized English. Mélusine Mayance as the young Sarah Starzynski, gives an amazing performance regardless of her young age. While her desperation and loss is palpable, she runs the gamut of emotions in this film, every one of them believable. I’m hoping to see much more from this talented young lady in the future.
Director Gilles Paquet-Brenner does an amazing job of bringing this bestselling book to the screen. While this is definitely a solid tale of one woman’s quest for the truth, it also stands as a tribute to those who lost their lives in that terrible time. Sarah’s Key pleads with the audience to listen, understand, and never forget. Paquet-Brenner said in an interview, ““We live in a world where it’s all about Twitter, Facebook and now, now, now….we need to know our past because the past is what made us what we are today, and we need to understand it so we can build ourselves a better future.”
While the hard-hitting narrative of Sarah’s Key may be heartbreaking to watch at times, it’s a story that cries out to be heard. Luckily, this is a movie that not only succeeds in telling the tale of the Vélodrome d’Hive roundup, it’s also a fascinating mystery that will keep viewers riveted to the screen even as the credits roll.
When Sarah’s Key – the book – came out, those who read it found the story of the Jewish round-up in Paris by the FRENCH police incredulous. Why had we not learned about this horror in all the Holocaust literature we’d previous read? .. It was, I believe, impossible for the French people to accept the knowledge of their own police being a party to such an atrocity – and as most of the Jews who were rounded up died the story could have and, it seems, was – simply buried.
Now that this excellent – profound and moving movie has been made perhaps more than just the readers of Sarah’s Key will be made aware of this horrendous happening. I, too, believe it is important to understand the past in order to make a better future.