Alternative Tuesdays: Sarah´s Key (2010)

Today on my first alternative Tuesday I´m going to talk about the french movie Sarah´s Key (Elle s'appelait Sarah) based on the book by Tatiana De Rosnay. The film, directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, is about a   journalist's (Kristen Scott Thomas) present day investigation into the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup (where the french army and police reunited all the Jews in Paris, to send them to the Nazi concentration camps), and a story of a young Jewish girl's (Mélusine Mayance) experiences during that same event.
I read 3 years ago the book and I have to say I loved it. The story involves a lot of mystery, drama and surprises and you cannot stop reading it. What the movie gets is that every time something happens, you believe the movie is going to end, and then something else happens, and after that something else. I seriously was expecting the movie to end, half an hour before it actually ended, and I had read the book and knew the ending!

For me, being a Jew and being educated about the holocaust since I was 8 years old, the movie touched my feelings and it gave me goosebumps in more than one occasion. 
Don´t expect an oscar movie, because its not, it is an European movie and it has budget limitations. The locations and historical scenes are not as good as in movies like "Schindler's List" or "The pianist" and the acting is not anything special neither.
Where this movie wins a lot is in the story, the argument. Its a moving story about the passion of a woman that wanted to give a name and a face to one of the millions of victims of the holocaust. She wanted to know her story, and she did everything to find it, although more than 60 years passed since the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup.
Dont watch this movie if: you are looking for action, comedy or to simply pass time.
Watch this movie if: you want mystery, suspense, passion, history and drama.
My Rating = 7.5