My Name Is Sara

Outstanding sweep of the complexities of surviving in wartime. The fact that it is a true story adds needed perspective to how vulnerable everyone is when mad men reign. Particularly touching as we consider the current Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. I recommend this to everyone!

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.

It's 1942 eastern Poland. Jewish fugitive Sara Guralnick (Zuzanna Surowy) is on the run with her older brother. She leaves him behind and takes on the identity of her longtime Christian friend. She becomes the nanny to Ukrainian couple, Nadya and Pavlo. It's a struggle to maintain her secret as she navigates the dangerous world.

It's a harrowing true story. The actors are great. It's danger for Sara at every turn. The movie paints a compelling complicated picture of that world. The complicated personal relationships are just the tip of the iceberg. There is a reality to the story that doesn't feel constructed.

I loved everything about about this poignant, true story of SARA GÓRALNIK! I went to a webinar about how the movie was developed and filmed. It was painful for the real Sara Goralnik to talk about her life, but the film had voice. I felt it told the true story. The lead actress Zuzanna Surowy was chosen to play the part of Sara even though she had no prior professional acting experience and was in high school. Her portrayal showed exquisite depth. The other roles were well cast and realistically depicted. The characters were not admirable, but the actors showed that peer pressure and flaws of moral judgment cause people to act with disrespect, selfishness, and lack of empathy. Yet, at times you could see a moment of kindness in people who controlled Sara's life. Suzanna portrayed the inner strength of the real Sara who had promised her parents to survive. The cinematography was artfully and beautifully done. I am not a film critic, but I am a film lover. This movie told a story that needs to be experienced again and again so that the horrors of the Holocaust will "never again" happen!!! I highly recommend seeing it...I will never forget "My Name is Sara!"

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.