SARAH’S KEY (ELLE S’APPELLE SARAH)

France, 2010, 111 minutes, Colour.
Kristin Scott Thomas, Melusine Mayance, Niels Arestrup, Frederic Pierrot, Michel Duchaussoy, Aidan Quinn.
Directed by Gilles Paquet- Brenner.

This is a very fine and moving film.

For the first half of the film, Sarah is a strong-minded young girl. However, she is caught up in a European situation beyond her control. In the second half of the film, she is not seen on screen but is a strong presence as the audience explores the mystery of her adult life.

The European situation is, of course, World War II. Sarah (Melusine Mayance in a strong performance) is Jewish. She lives with her parents and younger brother, Michel, in the Jewish quarter of Paris. As the film opens (after a tender credits sequence with Sarah playing with her little brother), the French police (rather than the Gestapo) are rounding up French Jews and moving them to the Paris Velodrom nearby. They are kept in squalid, unhygienic conditions with little to eat or drink and with hastily packed suitcases. Before long, the adults and older children are sent to the railway stations to be transported to the camps.

While we have seen these situations on screen before (recently in Gainsbourg), the immediacy of the filming here, the handheld cameras immersing the audience so strongly into the middle of the crowds means that it is more vivid and harrowing than in many of the other films.

But, that is only the beginning. The title refers to the key that Sarah used to hide Michel in a cupboard to avoid detection. She had told him to stay there until she comes for him. This weighs so heavily on her and on her parents that she becomes more and more desperate.

The film is also set in the early 2000s. A French family are moving into the home of the husband’s parents in Paris, renovating it. The wife is American and a journalist. When pictures of the 1942 experience of the Jews come up at the office and the very young writers know nothing about these events, she sets out to investigate, which leads to the awareness that Sarah’s house is the house of her family. What did they know at the time, since they moved in soon after the rounding up of the Jews?

This raises the issue of the complicity of the French in the treatment of the Jews, the Vichy authorities and the police. The film offers an opportunity to acknowledge what happened and a speech of Jacques Chirac is included in the narrative.

There is a whole lot more to the film. The review so far refers only to the first part, so readers will appreciate just how much there is in the film.

As the plot develops, we intercut between the 1940s and the 2000s, eventually looking at the 1950s and 1960s as well.

A sympathetic French policeman helps Sarah (after initially standing on her foot when she tried to get her key, later allowing her to retrieve an apple thrown over the camp fence by sympathetic local women). Without revealing too much of the plot, one can say that she encounters an elderly French couple who refuse to help at first but then make her part of their family – and she is able to return to the room with the key. Niels Arestrup (the prison boss in The Prophet) brings the dilemmas of the ordinary French people under the occupation emotionally to life.

Kristin Scott Thomas plays Julia, the journalist who is searching for the truth of what happened in the home and what happened to Sarah. It is one of Scott Thomas’ best and most emotional performances. She can embody coolness and detachment perfectly in many films, so it is moving to see her in this role. Her quest takes her to the US and to Italy and encounter with a middle-aged man, played by Aidan Quinn.

The story that she uncovers has much joy but also much sadness, as has her own story and the repercussions for her marriage, her husband not understanding while her in-laws relish the opportunity to open up what happened in the past and appreciate that there was honour amongst the dishonour in the war years.

The film is based on a novel by Tatiana de Rosnay.

1. The impact of the film? World War II, friends, the Jews, the roundup in Paris? The contemporary story, the search? The interconnection?

2. The re-creation of Paris, 1942, the district, the apartments, the brutality of the roundup, the women and children, the neighbours and their betrayal, hostile calls from observers? The situation in the velodrome, the stands, the children not allowed on the track? The squalor in the velodrome, no toilets, no water, the stench? The young woman, taking off the star, pretending to be ill, the nurse, getting out? The transition to the camps, the separation of men and women, holding back of the younger children, boarding the trains? The French police, hostility, some kindness? The countryside, the village?

3. The contemporary story, Paris, 2009? The family apartment, the decision to move in? Julia and her attitude? The daughter? The attitude of her husband, the family, his growing up there? His parents living there are so long? Julia and her work on the magazine? Her pregnancy, the discussions about the abortion, the going to the clinic, her decision not to have the abortion? The phone calls to her husband, the restaurant, their first meeting place his not welcoming the pregnancy, his reasons? The visit to China? Julia and her visit to New York? Returning? The visit to Florence?

4. The title, the opening and the two children playing, Sarah and Michel? The experience of the roundup, love for her mother, persuading Michel to hide in a cupboard, locking him in, taking the key, the police search, the lies? Her anguish, her desperation in wanting to return? In the camp, the kindly policeman with the apple? Her plan to escape, the other girl, the timing, under the wire, the policeman helping? Running through the woods, in the town, the old man refusing entry, cold light, his finding the girls, taking them in, the older girl dying of diphtheria, the local doctor, the police? Sarah staying with the family, the mother and her love? Disguising Sarah as a boy, on the train, going to the house, the opening of the door, the dead boy? The family adopting Sarah, her growing up, the work, the love for the old man? Mr Tezac and his paying the money each month, her decision to leave? The later card about marrying in the US?

5. Julia, the focus, American, the sister (and her putting on make-up when they talked of the serious matters)? The marriage, her busy husband, the issue of the pregnancy and his attitude, after so many attempts to have a child, the disbelief that her husband would ask her for an abortion? The effect of the dinner? Her daughter, the discussions? The plans to move into the apartment?

6. The work in the office, with the editor, her skills as a journalist, the young people, their ignorance of the past? Investigation, writing of the article, their praise? Julius declarations about the importance of knowing the past?

7. Julia’s fascination with the apartment, its history, her in-laws family, the date of the family moving into the apartment, 1942, enquiries about the previous residents, the old man with the records, no mention of Sarah, her not being deported? Her father-in-law, his telling her the story, the flashbacks, the grandfather being present as a boy when Sarah came back, his wife not knowing the truth? Telling his son? His son’s reaction? Julia finding the documents about the giving of the money, ringing to reassure her father-in-law?

8. The contact with the daughter of the adopting parents of Sarah, giving information, the issues of the US? Julia going to America, checking the various possibilities with the name? Finding the mother and daughter, the discussions, learning more about Sarah, her husband? Going to Italy to see the son?

9. Meeting William, friendly, her telling the story, showing William the photo of his mother as a little girl, Jewish, his dismay, complete denial, believing she was lying? Not wanting to see her again? His going to see his father, his love for his father, his father’s health, the father deciding to tell the truth, giving the documents, William trying to cope? The flashbacks to Sarah’s past, the club, the encounter with her husband, the years, driving, the visualising of her death?

10. The passing of years, Julia’s daughter missing Paris, wanting to go back, the sky, session with her father, seeing his girlfriend? Her bond with her mother?

11. Julia, in New York, the sister, the baby, wheeling her? William and his making contact, his coming to terms with the situation, his mother, the truth about her depression, suicide? Julia calling her daughter Sarah, William’s reaction? His discovery of the family in France?

12. A powerful telling of the past and its continued significance in the 21st century?