‘My Name Is Sara’ Review: A Quietly Devastating Story of Survival, Secrets, and the Strength to Endure
The Holocaust has inspired countless films, each striving to illuminate a different facet of humanity’s darkest era. Yet “My Name Is Sara”, directed by Steven Oritt and written by David Himmelstein, manages to stand apart.
It’s not the spectacle of war or the machinery of genocide that defines this story — it’s the fragile, enduring strength of one child who learns that survival sometimes demands silence, deception, and unbearable courage.
A Child in Hiding
Based on the true story of Sara Góralnik, the film traces the harrowing journey of a 12-year-old Jewish girl who, in 1942, escapes the massacre of her Polish town of Korets (in what is now Ukraine). Alone and terrified, Sara flees into the Ukrainian countryside, assuming a false identity as a Christian orphan named “Sara Goral.”
Her deception is not just a disguise — it’s her only weapon. As Nazi patrols sweep the region and neighbors turn on neighbors, Sara must live by her wits, her memory, and her silence. She finds refuge with a farmer, Pavlo, and his wife, Nadia, who take her in as a servant and nanny, unaware of her true faith.
The result is a film that plays as much like a psychological thriller as a war drama. Every whispered prayer, every knock at the door, carries the potential for disaster.
A Performance of Rare Depth
As young Sara, Zuzanna Surowy delivers a first-time performance of remarkable subtlety and control. With her expressive eyes and quiet determination, Surowy embodies the emotional complexity of a child forced to live two lives at once — the faithful daughter of a murdered Jewish family and the invented Christian orphan struggling to survive among strangers.
Her performance carries the film. Even in silence, we feel her fear, her longing, and her dawning understanding of what she has lost. There’s a depth to Surowy’s portrayal that belies her age and experience. She doesn’t perform grief — she inhabits it.
It’s through her perspective that we feel the relentless danger pressing in from all sides. A misstep, a word spoken out of turn, even a glance held too long could mean exposure. Oritt’s direction never lets us forget the cost of a single mistake.
An Unflinching Portrait of Life Under Occupation
Shot entirely in northeastern Poland, “My Name Is Sara” is visually stunning in a way that underscores, rather than softens, its bleakness. Cinematographer Grzegorz Hartfiel captures the natural beauty of the countryside — wide, open fields and misty forests — but layers that beauty with dread.
The earth that sustains life also conceals death.
One of the most powerful sequences comes not in an act of violence, but in exhaustion and futility: Pavlo (played by Eryk Lubos) plowing an immense field with the help of a dying cow. The moment is haunting — a metaphor for the broken human spirit, straining for survival in a world gone mad. It’s as devastating as any scene of war.
Oritt’s restrained approach makes the film’s few bursts of brutality hit even harder. A Hitler-ordered execution of Ukrainian townsfolk unfolds with cold precision, and the flashbacks to Sara’s lost family are handled with aching tenderness rather than melodrama. Her parents, played by Ksawery Szlenkier and Aleksandra Pisula, tell her before they part: “Surviving will be our revenge.” Those words echo throughout the film, shaping every choice Sara makes.
A Story of Identity and the Price of Survival
At its heart, “My Name Is Sara” is about more than survival — it’s about identity. Sara must erase who she is to live. She learns to cross herself, to pray in a faith that isn’t hers, and to speak words she doesn’t believe. But beneath the disguise, her memory remains a fragile lifeline to the world she’s lost.
The longer she hides, the more blurred the line becomes between survival and surrender. When Pavlo and Nadia’s suspicions stir, the air thickens with unspoken tension. Will compassion save her, or will fear destroy them all?
Oritt keeps these questions hanging over every scene, allowing the tension to smolder rather than explode. The film’s quietness is its greatest strength — it forces us to listen, to wait, to imagine the thoughts Sara cannot say aloud.
Emotion in Every Frame
The film’s atmosphere is unrelenting but immersive. The score, used sparingly, accentuates the stillness — the sound of wind, the creak of wood, the crunch of boots on frozen earth. Even the silences feel alive.
Each frame carries the weight of history and the fragility of human endurance.
Though set in the 1940s, “My Name Is Sara” feels eerily timely. Its Ukrainian setting — once again a landscape scarred by war and displacement — reminds us that history repeats in haunting patterns. The film’s questions about morality, identity, and complicity are not confined to the past.
A Quiet Triumph
By the end, “My Name Is Sara” leaves you both shattered and awed. Sara’s survival is not a victory in the traditional sense — it’s endurance in the face of annihilation, courage drawn from the raw instinct to live.
Director Steven Oritt and screenwriter David Himmelstein have crafted a film that lingers long after it ends — a portrait of innocence caught in the jaws of history. It is, simply, a story that must be told — and remembered.
Verdict:
A haunting, beautifully acted survival story that blends emotional realism with the tension of a thriller.
“My Name Is Sara” is not only a powerful Holocaust film — it’s a universal story of human resilience and the unbearable cost of survival.
⭐ Rating: 4.5 / 5
🎬 Director: Steven Oritt
🖊️ Writer: David Himmelstein
⭐ Cast: Zuzanna Surowy, Eryk Lubos, Michalina Olszańska, Ksawery Szlenkier, Aleksandra Pisula
📍 Genre: Historical Drama / War Thriller
🕯️ Runtime: 111 minutes
