Netflix’s My Name Is Sara, a gripping film premiering October 25, 2025, with a 95% Rotten Tomatoes score from early screenings, tells the harrowing true story of Sara Góralnik, a 13-year-old Polish-Jewish girl who survived the Holocaust after her family’s murder in 1942. Directed by Steven Oritt and filmed in Poland’s stark landscapes from June to September 2025, the film stars Zuzanna Surowy as Sara, delivering a “masterpiece of courage and pain” that’s sparked 3.2M #TrueStoryTears posts for its raw, unforgettable portrayal of resilience amid unimaginable loss.
The saga’s searing surge? Spellbinding: The film catapults Sara into a desperate flight after her family’s slaughter by Nazis, a hidden identity etched with doubt, unspooling a web where strangers conceal threats and survival harbors grief. Surowy’s Sara? A “masterclass in mettle,” her fragile resolve warping to fierce defiance, unraveling a ripple of regrets where a “trusted host” surfaces as sabotage. Co-stars deepen the drama: Eryk Lubos as a “haunted farmer” with a sting, Michalina Olszańska as a “calculating” villager with secrets. Oritt’s script quivers with quips—“Courage is a whisper in the dark”—but the “brutal” stakes bite: a botched escape buries hope, a VVIP viper’s venom turns ally to antagonist.
The “redefining true stories”? Volcanic: Based on Sara Góralnik’s 1990s interviews (archived, Yad Vashem), My Name Is Sara amps the “pacy” pathos with “moody” soundscapes and “authentic” 1940s vibes, Poland’s “eerie frost” amplifying “grim themes.” Variety’s Caroline Framke raves “pacy, poignant drama” with Surowy’s “reliably raw” heart; The Hollywood Reporter’s Daniel Fienberg hails Lubos’s “Icily Glamorous” intensity and the “haunting” score. The Wrap’s Matt Goldberg praises the “confidence, style, authenticity.” Skeptics? “Mired in misery,” but the 1-in-2 courage-to-catharsis ratio hooks, BARB metrics outgunning The Jetty.
This isn’t survival tale; it’s a requiem for the resilient, My Name Is Sara’s “loss” a flare for the fearless where grief grips and courage conquers. Sara’s struggle? Searing. The stakes? Staggering. October 25? Not a drop—a deluge. Binge it; the threats terrify, the triumphs transcend. Surowy’s spirit? Spellbinding. The obsession? Overnight, inescapable.
