My Name Is Sara

I have always had a profound respect and boundless admiration for those uncommonly resolute individuals who are somehow imbued with the indomitable intestinal fortitude that allows them to so courageously defy unspeakable tyranny, no matter how severe the cost, a laudable strength I manifestly DO NOT possess. Steven Oritt's witheringly tense WW2 drama is a wholly absorbing, albeit emotionally distressing true story about the resourcefully defiant young Jewish girl Sara Góralnik (Zuzanna Surowy), cruelly separated from her beloved family by the despotic, Ukraine annexing Hun; Góralnik's extraordinary will to survive, and uncommon strength is hugely inspirational to behold! A darkly fascinating, frequently disturbing journey into Sara's all-too precarious existence, engagingly written, captivatingly photographed, beautifully performed, and no less tastefully filmed. And the starkly oppressive sequence wherein the arrogant, inebriate Wehrmacht looted the family farm proved to be quite an unsettling interlude, since there was nothing remotely cartoonish about the performances, dully matter-of-fact, the degenerate German soldier's callously brutal treatment of the beleaguered family felt queasily realistic. Kudos to the creative cast and crew being able to make the harrowing experiences of an innocent teenage girl so hypnotically compelling.

The film portrays the survival story of young Sara, portrayed with subtle intensity by Zuzanna Surowy. Amongst the horrors of the Nazi occupation, and the ferocious Jews persecution in the Ukraine the protagonist manages to escape pretending to be a gentile. The peasant she shelters with are not good or altruistic, they are just downtrodden people, fiercely attached to their land and traditions. While the cinematography and the direction is passable but not memorable and the story line somehow mundane, probably the better aspect of the production reside in the depiction of the local peasant society, of their perennial straggle against whatever power exploit them and their self-reliance. People that cannot afford to be generous or open-minded. There are only few acts of genuine altruism and many more of the opposite but the unsentimental and non-judgmental approach to the storytelling is refreshing, leaving the viewer to make up its mind on the grey morality of the real world.

Enjoyable film, the hole film is good and keeps you focused , based on a true story as well ,,,its mind blowing.

This was a wonderful film. Had I known when watching it that it was a true story I would have been even more immersed. The Nazis and the persecution of the Jews takes a back seat to what is really a movie about people living in the country in that region during the war and the interactions between the lead character Sara and the other two main characters. The acting is completely believable. There is nothing contrived. Nothing felt like padding. So glad that movies like this are being made. A true education about human beings.

This is a great movie, with a wonderful lead. Rather than a war story, it is more of a character study. A really interesting and enjoyable film and it certainly deserves a lot higher than the 6.3 rating it has. Possibly many of those of who watched it thought it would be a war movie with lots of action and were disappointed, so they gave it a poor rating.