Title: My Name Is Sara
Rating: NR
Directed by: Steven Oritt
Written by: David Himmelstein
Starring: Zuzanna Surowy, Michalina Olszanska, Eryk Lubos, Konrad Cichon, and Pawel Królikowski
Release Date: 2/27/2020
Running Time: 111 minutes
What did you think of this film?
In June of 1941, Sara Góralnik was just 11 years old when the German Army invaded her hometown of Korets, in present-day Ukraine. Prior to the war, Korets was part of an independent Poland which encompassed the eastern territory of Ukraine, home to a thriving Jewish community whose history in the region goes back over 1,000 years. There, Jews forged a burgeoning merchant-class that in some of the provinces such as Volyn, where Korets sits, comprised as much as two-thirds of the local population.
At the time, eastern Poland was a true melting pot where Jews, Polish Catholics and Ukrainian Eastern Orthodox Christians cohabitated in relative peace for centuries. Jews were the commercial backbone of the area and flourished as tradesmen; the local Ukrainian farmers however, did not fare as well. Poorly educated, oppressed by the Polish nobility and starved by the Soviets during the great famine of the 1930’s, Ukrainians suffered greatly for decades, an agony that cultivated a deep resentment towards the upwardly mobile Jewish population. By the time the Nazis invaded in 1941, many Ukrainians greeted their German liberators with open arms and welcomed a cleansing of their Jewish neighbors from the region.
Are There Any Extras During The Credits? No
Are There Any Extras After The Credits? No
Special thanks to Frank for this submission
