History Film / SarahsKey

* DeathOfAChild: The poor parents [[spoiler:realizing that their daughter has likely unwittingly caused her brother's terrible death. ''And they will never learn what happened to their children'']].

* FinalSolution

* AdultFear: The poor parents [[spoiler:realizing that their daughter has likely unwittingly caused her brother's terrible death. ''And they will never learn what happened to their children'']].

* CheerfulChild: Michel, Rachel, Sarah [[spoiler:([[BreakTheCutie at first]])]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sarahs_key.jpg]]

Julia Jarmond (Kristin Scott Thomas), an American journalist who lives in Paris with her French husband and daughter, is tasked with investigating the Vel' D'Hiv roundup, a 1942 event in German-occupied Paris where thousands of Jews were rounded up and forced to stay in appalling conditions in the Vélodrome D'Hiver until they could be deported to German camps. The film simultaneously follows the story of Sarah Starzynski, a young Jewish girl who in 1942 is arrested with her parents during the roundup. They are taken to the Vel' D'Hiv, but not before Sarah locks her younger brother in a secret wallspace to keep him safe from the Germans, promising to return shortly to free him. Julia Jarmond will discover in the course of her investigations that her and Sarah's lives are intertwined.

%%* DidNotDieThatWay
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Sarah kills herself by crashing her car into a tree because she is too haunted by Michel's death and living under a false identity.]]

%%* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Sarah crashes her car into a tree because she is too haunted by Michel's death and living under a false identity.]]

* PersonalHorror: [[spoiler: Sarah had to live with the fact she inadvertently locked his brother in the closet during the Nazi raid, and eventually her depression lead her to commit suicide as an adult.]]

* [[TellMeAboutMyFather Tell Me About My Mother]]: William at the end.

* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler:Sarah didn't manage to save Michel.]]

%%* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Sarah.]]

** Julia to a less extent. She's deeply invested in finding Sarah, and [[spoiler:she goes through with her desire to keep her baby, even at the cost of her marriage]].

* EmotionlessGirl: [[spoiler:Grown-up Sarah has shades of this, completely justified.]]

** Mr. Dufaure may also count. At first he turned the girls away so he wouldn't get in trouble.

* CheerfulChild: Michel, Rachel, Sarah [[spoiler:[[BreakTheCutie at first]]]].
* LesCollaborateurs: Ultimately the book and film seek to confront the unpleasant fact that it was mostly French collaborators who carried out the roundup, and to explore the attitudes of other French people at the time who closed their eyes to the atrocities in front of them.

* DarkSecret: [[spoiler: The Tezacs' (Julia's husband's family) apartment was vacated in 1942 because its Jewish occupants had been rounded up to be deported to camps. Julia's brother-in-law and his father were both in the apartment on the day Sarah returned and opened the secret closet to find Michel's rotting body, but in order to protect everyone else in the family, they never spoke of it again.]]

** Julia to a less extent. She's deeply invested in finding Sarah, and [[spoiler:she goes through with her desire to keep her baby, even at the cost of her marriage.]]

%%* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Sarah.]]
* EmotionlessGirl: [[spoiler: Grown-up Sarah has shades of this, completely justified.]]
* FatalFlaw: [[spoiler: Sarah deciding on her own to lock her brother in the secret closet led to his death - and probably a very unpleasant one at that.]]

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: The camp guard, Jacques, who ultimately helps Sarah and Rachel to escape the camp after trying to prevent them leaving.]]

* KillTheCutie: [[spoiler: Michel and Rachel.]]
* LawOfInverseFertility: Julia miraculously becomes pregnant late in her life after failed IVF and two miscarriages. Unfortunately her husband doesn't want another child.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: We don't see what happens to Sarah's parents... [[spoiler:until Julia learns they died in ''Auschwitz''.]]

* AdultFear: ''Hell''. It's a movie about WorldWarII!
** The poor parents [[spoiler:realizing that their daughter has likely unwittingly caused her brother's terrible death. ''And they will never learn what happened to their children'']].
* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Sarah does this ''literally'' upon finding her little brother's corpse in the closet.]]
** The woman's suicide at the Vel d'Hiv.

* BreakTheCutie: The entire narration of Sarah's childhood.
* BroodingBoyGentleGirl: Richard Rainsferd and his second wife.

* DidNotDieThatWay
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Sarah.]]

* WorldWarII

* LesCollaborateurs: Ultimately the book and film seek to confront the unpleasant fact that it was mostly French collaborators who carried out the roundup, and to explore the attitudes of other French people at the time who closed their eyes to the atrocities in front of them.

Julia Jarmond (Kristin Scott Thomas), an American journalist who lives in Paris with her French husband and daughter, is tasked with investigating the Vel' D'Hiv roundup, a 1942 event in German-occupied Paris where thousands of Jews were rounded up and forced to stay in appalling conditions in the Velodrome D'Hiver until they could be deported to German camps. The film simultaneously follows the story of Sarah Starzynski, a young Jewish girl who in 1942 is arrested with her parents during the roundup. They are taken to the Vel' D'Hiv, but not before Sarah locks her younger brother in a secret wallspace to keep him safe from the Germans, promising to return shortly to free him. Julia Jarmond will discover in the course of her investigations that her and Sarah's lives are intertwined.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Sarah is DeadAllAlong, and Michel as well. Julia divorces from her husband, but she keeps her baby daughter and she's considering moving back to Paris. She has also befriended William, who has accepted his mother's DarkAndTroubledPast, and Julia's daughter's name is... Sarah.]]

* DarkSecret: [[spoiler: The Tezacs' house belonged to a family of Jews deported whose son was found dead inside a closet. Julia's brother-in-law and his father were both in the apartment on the day Sarah returned home and discovered Michel, but in order to protect everyone else in the family, they never spoke of it again.]]

* LawOfInverseFertility: Julia miraculously becomes pregnant late in her life after failed IVF and two miscarriages. Her husband doesn't want children.
* LesCollaborateurs

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: At one point we didn't see what happened to Sarah's parents...until Julia learns they died in ''Auschwitz''.

''Sarah's Key'' (French: ''Elle s'appelait Sarah'') is a 2010 French drama by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, adaptation of the novel with the same title by Tatiana de Rosnay.

An American journalist (Kristin Scott Thomas) investigates the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup of Jews in German-occupied Paris in 1942. She married a Frenchman who had inherited from his grandparents, an apartment dating to WorldWarII. His wife began to investigate the previous tenants, who turn out to be a Jewish family [[FinalSolution deported]], whose daughter was able to escape.

The film alternates between Sarah's life in 1942 and the journalist researching the story in 2009.

** Think of those poor parents [[spoiler:realizing that their daughter unwilling has locked alive her brother putting his life at risk. ''And they will never learn what happened to their children'']].
* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Sarah does this ''literally'' finding her little brother's corpse in the closet.]]
** The man's suicide at the Vel d'Hiv.
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: An old man takes hidden cyanide as a last resort...
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Sarah is DeadAllAlong, and Michel as well. Julia divorces from her husband, but she keeps her baby daughter and she's planning to move back to Paris. She has also befriended William, who has accepted her mother's DarkAndTroubledPast, and Julia's daughter's name is...Sarah.]]

* CynicismCatalyst: [[spoiler:Michel's death has completely broken Sarah.]]
* DarkSecret: [[spoiler: The Tezacs' house belonged to a family of Jews deported whose son was found dead inside a closet.]]

** Julia to a less extent. She's very into finding Sarah, and she goes through with her desire to keep her baby, even at the cost of her marriage.

* FatalFlaw: [[spoiler: Sarah shouldn't have locked Michel.]]

* HeelFaceTurn: The policeman Jacques finally decides to help Sarah.
** Mr. Dufour may also count. At first he didn't want to help Sarah and Rachel.
* KillTheCutie: [[spoiler: Michel and Rachel]]
* LawOfInverseFertility: Julia is pregnant with her second child when she has lost all her hopes and her husband doesn't want other children.

* NightmareFuel: Think of [[spoiler:Michel's dead body...]]. Sleep well.
* The man who commits suicide at the Vel d'Hiv.