‘My Name Is Sara’ Unearthed: Gripping Holocaust Survival Tale of a 13-Year-Old Jewish Girl’s Desperate Masquerade as Christian Nanny – Constant Peril, Hidden Secrets & Unyielding Courage in Nazi-Occupied Ukraine!

In this tense, fact-based drama, a young Polish Jewish girl named Sara Goralnik (renamed Sara Shapiro later in life) flees the liquidation of her family’s ghetto in Korets, Poland (now Ukraine), in 1942. At just 13, she parts from her older brother—who recognizes his more “identifiable” Jewish features doom him—promising her parents she will survive. Adopting the identity of her Christian classmate Manya Romanchuk, Sara treks to the Ukrainian countryside, where she poses as an orphaned gentile runaway to secure shelter.

Taken in by a Ukrainian Orthodox farming couple, Pavlo (Eryk Lubos) and his much younger wife Nadya (Michalina Olszańska), Sara works as a live-in nanny for their two boys in exchange for food and a roof. The arrangement is precarious from day one. Pavlo, a gruff widower resentful of Nazi requisitions that strip his farm, harbors suspicions about the paperless girl. Nadya is even more probing—testing Sara by demanding she cross herself, serving her pork (forbidden in Judaism), and calling her to lead Christian prayers. Sara, having secretly learned prayers from her friend Manya, navigates these traps with chilling composure, but every moment is laced with dread.

The film masterfully sustains suspense: danger lurks everywhere. Nazi patrols demand livestock, antisemitic locals whisper, and Russian partisans threaten raids. Sara witnesses executions of innocents accused of sheltering Jews, flashbacks to her loving family’s fate haunt her, and the farm itself becomes a pressure cooker. When Sara uncovers Nadya’s extramarital affair, leverage shifts—alliances fracture, loyalties blur, and survival hinges on silence and cunning.

Zuzanna Surowy, a non-professional discovered in an open casting call among 650 Polish teens, delivers a breakout, raw performance as Sara/Manya. Her wide-eyed vulnerability masks steely resolve, capturing the terror of constant performance. Eryk Lubos brings brooding complexity to Pavlo—depressed, opportunistic, yet occasionally protective—while Michalina Olszańska’s Nadya oscillates between suspicion, jealousy, and reluctant warmth.

Directed by Steven Oritt (in his narrative feature debut, after documentaries) and scripted by David Himmelstein, the film draws from extensive interviews with the real Sara Goralnik Shapiro (who passed in 2018) and is executive produced by her son Mickey Shapiro in association with USC Shoah Foundation. Shot on location in northeastern Poland with a multinational cast (Polish, Ukrainian, German), it evokes authenticity—though critics note the Ukrainians speaking English among themselves jars against authentic Polish, Russian, and German dialogue elsewhere.

While intermittently powerful and sharp in depicting endless improvisation for survival, the movie occasionally stumbles: clunky exposition, vague handling of tensions (especially Pavlo’s intentions), and uneven pacing. Yet its core strength shines—illustrating how antisemitism permeated beyond Nazis, how ordinary people’s flaws aided horror, and how one girl’s wits defied genocide.

A worthy, affecting addition to Holocaust cinema, “My Name Is Sara” (also known as “The Occupation”) premiered at festivals like Giffoni and Warsaw (winning awards), earning praise for its thriller-like tension and historical resonance. It reminds viewers: survival was never guaranteed, and secrets in close quarters could kill.