My Name is Sara (also known as The Occupation) is a 2019 American biographical drama film directed by Steven Oritt, starring Zuzanna Surowy, and Michalina Olszańska. It is based on the life of Holocaust survivor Sara Góralnik.
Cast
Zuzanna Surowy as Sara
as Pavlo
Michalina Olszańska as Nadya
as Avram
as Tsivia
as Vira Ivanenko
as Ivan
Konrad Cichon as Moishe
as Grisha
Artur Sokolski as Danylo
Marcin Sokolski as Stepan
as Pavlo's mother
Stanislaw Cywka as Boris
Izabela Dąbrowska as Marina
as Fedir Ivanenko
Radosław Kaim as German Soldier
as Father Oleksa
as SS Officer
as Captain
Ryszard Ronczewski as Pavlo's Father
Release
The film premiered at the Giffoni Film Festival on 21 July 2019.
Reception
Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com rated the film 3.5 stars out of 4 and called it a "torment in cinematic form, made engrossing by its focus on a singular experience, and the performance that anchors it", writing that Surowy "has that gift of letting the surroundings and events absorb and reflect her."
Gary Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film "has its share of physically and emotionally tough moments", and called Surowy's performance "gripping, deeply textured and sympathetic".
Ben Kenigsberg of The New York Times called the film "intermittently powerful if somewhat stiff-jointed" and wrote that it can be "clunkily expository" and "frustratingly vague."
