Sarah's Key

Sarah's Key (Elle s'appelait Sarah, 2010), directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, is available to watch online on iFILM. Kristin Scott Thomas plays an American journalist in Paris assigned to write about a wartime roundup that France spent decades trying not to remember.

It's the summer of 1942. French police drag thousands of Jewish families from their homes and herd them into a covered cycling stadium in the heart of the city. Ten-year-old Sarah, given seconds to act, hides her little brother in a bedroom cupboard and locks it, swearing she'll be back soon. There turns out to be no coming back, and no soon. Six decades on, journalist Julia digs through the files, finds the girl's record — and the thread leads straight into her own husband's family.

Adapted from Tatiana de Rosnay's novel, the film runs two timelines side by side: Sarah's desperate flight and the quiet investigation of a woman who can no longer view the past from a safe distance. Mélusine Mayance, as the child, carries the entire first half with barely a word. A heavy, hushed film about how someone else's memory becomes your own. Stream Sarah's Key (2010) online on iFILM.