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Kristin Scott Thomas chats Sarah’s Key

By Anne Brodie Aug 15, 2011, 18:47 GMT

In modern-day Paris, a journalist (Kristen Scott Thomas) finds her life becoming entwined with a young girl whose family was torn apart during the notorious Vel\' d\'Hiv Roundup in 1942. ...more

Sarah’s Key, the film adaptation of Tatiana de Rosnay’s bestselling book, is set in Nazi occupied Paris, around a block of Jewish families begin to feel the impact of the German annihilation agenda.

A little girl rounded up with her family locks her infant brother in a secret closet, hoping to come back for him in a few days.  As fate would have it, she did not.

Kristin Thomas Scott plays a journalist in the present day investigating the case.  She becomes obsessed by their story and what became of them.

“What I like about the film is the way it is not just another Holocaust movie”, says Thomas. “It’s not another film about this thing we’re all so horrified about that it becomes fascinating. It’s about how these events have affected peoples’ lives two and three generations beyond.  And not the people you think would be affected.  Everyone’s lives were affected, not just the victims.”

Thomas’ participation in Sarah’s Key was highly personal.  The English born actress has lived in France for 26 years and knew the history of the collaboration of French administrators and police with the Nazis in the mass roundups and arrest of Jews during WWII. 

Sarah’s Key is a kind of journal of the experiences of a family among the 13,000 Jews held in Vel' d'Hiv stadium before being sent to Drancy concentration camp, and ultimately Auschwitz, under French police collaborators.

“The stories I’ve heard in my family about people surviving and how they survived the prosecution of the Jews and the Vichy governments are just unbelievable”, she says. “All the extraordinary stories you heard around the dinner table.”

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