My Name Is Sara

My Name is Sara (also known as The Occupation^[1]) is a 2019 American biographical drama film directed by Steven Oritt, starring Zuzanna Surowy, Eryk Lubos [pl] and Michalina Olszańska. It is based on the life of Holocaust survivor Sara Góralnik.

My Name is Sara
Directed by	Steven Oritt
Written by	David Himmelstein
Produced by	Steven Oritt Justyna Pawlak
Starring	Zuzanna Surowy Eryk Lubos [pl] Michalina Olszańska
Cinematography	Marian Prokop [pl]
Edited by	Agnieszka Glińska
Music by	Łukasz Targosz
Production companies	James Lucy Productions Media Luna New Films Watchout Studio
Release date	21 July 2019 (2019-07-21) (Giffoni Film Festival)
Running time	111 minutes
Country	United States
Languages	English Polish Russian German

Cast

• Zuzanna Surowy as Sara
• Eryk Lubos [pl] as Pavlo
• Michalina Olszańska as Nadya
• Ksawery Szlenkier [pl] as Avram
• Aleksandra Pisula [pl] as Tsivia
• Iwona Bielska [pl] as Vira Ivanenko
• Paweł Królikowski [pl] as Ivan
• Konrad Cichon as Moishe
• Piotr Nerlewski [pl] as Grisha
• Artur Sokolski as Danylo
• Marcin Sokolski as Stepan
• Magdalena Celówna-Janikowska [pl] as Pavlo's mother
• Stanislaw Cywka as Boris
• Izabela Dąbrowska as Marina
• Lech Dyblik [pl] as Fedir Ivanenko
• Radosław Kaim as German Soldier
• Wiesław Komasa [pl] as Father Oleksa
• Maciej Mikołajczyk [pl] as SS Officer
• Bartosz Porczyk [pl] as Captain
• Ryszard Ronczewski as Pavlo's Father

Release

The film premiered at the Giffoni Film Festival on 21 July 2019.^[2]

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."^[3]

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".^[4]

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."^[5]