Zuzanna Surowy as Sara/Manya, in My Name Is Sara. Courtesy of Strand Releasing
How many 13-year-olds have the self-discipline to pretend to be someone else for two years, without once revealing the truth even to those closest to her? My Name Is Sara is a tense historical survival drama that unfolds more like a thriller, which recounts the true story of 13-year-old Sara Goralnik who concealed her Jewish identity in Nazi-occupied Ukraine for two years, even from the Ukrainian Orthodox farmers with whom she is living.
There is a particularly timely element to this true story film as it is set in western Ukraine, part of which was in Poland when World War II started and part of which was in the Soviet Union, but all of which was occupied by Germany when the story takes place. The film not only tells Sara Goralnik’s harrowing personal story but...
How many 13-year-olds have the self-discipline to pretend to be someone else for two years, without once revealing the truth even to those closest to her? My Name Is Sara is a tense historical survival drama that unfolds more like a thriller, which recounts the true story of 13-year-old Sara Goralnik who concealed her Jewish identity in Nazi-occupied Ukraine for two years, even from the Ukrainian Orthodox farmers with whom she is living.
There is a particularly timely element to this true story film as it is set in western Ukraine, part of which was in Poland when World War II started and part of which was in the Soviet Union, but all of which was occupied by Germany when the story takes place. The film not only tells Sara Goralnik’s harrowing personal story but...
- 8/19/2022
- by Cate Marquis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris, a kind Cinderella story for older women with a Dior twist, arrives in 978 theaters this weekend with strong reviews and great word of mouth. The film is a known property among that demo given its prime trailer treatment before Focus Features’ fan favorite Downtown Abbey: A New Era — not a bad setup.
Deadline review here. The film by Anthony Fabian with Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert and Jason Isaacs has a 92/critics, 94/audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It shares the pond with a handful of strong studio holdovers and new wide releases Paw Patrol: The Movie and drama Where The Crawdads Sing. Like Crawdads, Mrs. Harris is based on a popular book – the 1958 novel by Paul Gallico – and book clubs are prominent in a large marketing push.
Manville plays Ada Harris, a British housekeeper and widow who dreams of buying her own couture Christian Dior gown.
Deadline review here. The film by Anthony Fabian with Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert and Jason Isaacs has a 92/critics, 94/audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It shares the pond with a handful of strong studio holdovers and new wide releases Paw Patrol: The Movie and drama Where The Crawdads Sing. Like Crawdads, Mrs. Harris is based on a popular book – the 1958 novel by Paul Gallico – and book clubs are prominent in a large marketing push.
Manville plays Ada Harris, a British housekeeper and widow who dreams of buying her own couture Christian Dior gown.
- 7/15/2022
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
The Icelandic-Polish co-production will star Olga Błądź, Jan Cięciara, Eryk Lubos and Anna Moskal in the lead roles. Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson’s new feature, currently in post-production, is a drama entitled Wolka. The Reykjavik-born director, best known for his previous endeavours Flying the Nest (2018), Undercurrent (2010) and Thicker Than Water (2006), has co-written the script of his new project in tandem with Michal Godzic (The Legions). Principal photography took place in Iceland last summer, with additional shooting days being organised in Poland in September. The story of Wolka revolves around Anna, who is released from a Polish prison. Once free, Anna has but one goal, which is to find a woman called Dorota, but to achieve it, she needs to break her parole, break the law and head off to the remote island of Iceland. The film’s cast includes Olga Błądź, Jan Cięciara, Eryk Lubos and Anna Moskal. Meanwhile, the...
Sagafilm and Film Produkcja produce. Arri Media handles sales.
Shooting is underway in Iceland on Wolka, a rare Iceland-Poland co-production.
The crime drama is directed by Iceland’s Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson, whose credits include Thicker Than Water, Undercurrent and family animation Ploey – You’ll Never Fly Alone.
Producers are Hilmar Sigurðsson and Beggi Jónsson at Iceland’s Sagafilm and Stanislaw Dziedzic at Poland’s Film Produkcja. Co-producers are Human Ark and Sound Making are co-producing. International sales are handled by Munich-based Arri Media International.
The 22-day Icelandic shoot started on August 6 in the Westman Islands. It will next move to...
Shooting is underway in Iceland on Wolka, a rare Iceland-Poland co-production.
The crime drama is directed by Iceland’s Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson, whose credits include Thicker Than Water, Undercurrent and family animation Ploey – You’ll Never Fly Alone.
Producers are Hilmar Sigurðsson and Beggi Jónsson at Iceland’s Sagafilm and Stanislaw Dziedzic at Poland’s Film Produkcja. Co-producers are Human Ark and Sound Making are co-producing. International sales are handled by Munich-based Arri Media International.
The 22-day Icelandic shoot started on August 6 in the Westman Islands. It will next move to...
- 9/1/2020
- by 1100142¦Wendy Mitchell¦39¦
- ScreenDaily
In today’s film news roundup, Strand buys drama “My Name is Sara,” “Bare Knuckle Brawler” is purchased, and Andrew Cripps gets a new gig at Warner Bros.
Acquisitions
Strand Releasing has acquired all North American rights to Steven Oritt’s Holocaust drama “My Name Is Sara.”
“My Name Is Sara” tells the true life-story of Sara Góralnik, a 13-year-old Polish Jew whose entire family was killed by Nazis in 1942. After a grueling escape to the Ukrainian countryside, Sara steals her Christian best friend’s identity and finds refuge in a small village, where she is taken in by a farmer and his young wife and discovers the dark secrets of her employers’ marriage, compounding her own secret.
The screenplay was written by David Himmelstein and stars Zuzanna Surowy as the lead, Eryk Lubos, Michalina Olszanska and Paweł Królikowski.
Strand plans for a 2020 spring release.
“My Name Is Sara” was...
Acquisitions
Strand Releasing has acquired all North American rights to Steven Oritt’s Holocaust drama “My Name Is Sara.”
“My Name Is Sara” tells the true life-story of Sara Góralnik, a 13-year-old Polish Jew whose entire family was killed by Nazis in 1942. After a grueling escape to the Ukrainian countryside, Sara steals her Christian best friend’s identity and finds refuge in a small village, where she is taken in by a farmer and his young wife and discovers the dark secrets of her employers’ marriage, compounding her own secret.
The screenplay was written by David Himmelstein and stars Zuzanna Surowy as the lead, Eryk Lubos, Michalina Olszanska and Paweł Królikowski.
Strand plans for a 2020 spring release.
“My Name Is Sara” was...
- 8/27/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
This montage-riddled clunker hits us over the head with stereotypes of masculinity and sports-drama tropes
Sticking with religious fervour to sports-drama conventions and cliches, this sweat-soaked, palette-desaturated, montage-riddled genre exercise stars Eryk Lubos as Kosa, a once feted, now washed-up mixed martial arts (Mma) champion lured back into the caged ring for one last bout.
If it weren’t for the fact that everyone is speaking Polish and that the action is set in an economically depressed province near the Lithuanian border, this would be virtually indistinguishable from any other low-budget, straight-to-dvd American story about, as the title so ploddingly spells out, an underdog. The film even assigns the hero a cute dog, just to nailgun the point. The floppy-eared mutt not only instigates the meet-cute with Aleksandra Popławska’s veterinarian love interest, but its unfortunate fate motivates the hero to get the better of the Russian bad guys.
Continue reading.
Sticking with religious fervour to sports-drama conventions and cliches, this sweat-soaked, palette-desaturated, montage-riddled genre exercise stars Eryk Lubos as Kosa, a once feted, now washed-up mixed martial arts (Mma) champion lured back into the caged ring for one last bout.
If it weren’t for the fact that everyone is speaking Polish and that the action is set in an economically depressed province near the Lithuanian border, this would be virtually indistinguishable from any other low-budget, straight-to-dvd American story about, as the title so ploddingly spells out, an underdog. The film even assigns the hero a cute dog, just to nailgun the point. The floppy-eared mutt not only instigates the meet-cute with Aleksandra Popławska’s veterinarian love interest, but its unfortunate fate motivates the hero to get the better of the Russian bad guys.
Continue reading.
- 1/18/2019
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
Bradford International Film Festival begins the screening of To Kill A Beaver with a dire fifteen minute French Portuguese short that would quite probably cure insomnia. Thankfully, tonight’s main feature is the product of established Polish Writer/Director, Jan Jakub Kolski, and despite a slow start, it runs rings around Four Hours Barefoot.
Hitman, Eric (Eryk Lubos) returns to his hometown to what appears to be his now empty childhood home, only to find it graffiti-covered and evidence of a squatter. Later while he destroys a beaver dam, a teenage girl (Agnieszka Pawelkiewicz) on a makeshift raft floats towards him. Kolski’s first close-up of her is comically presented with two sticks of gum protruding from either side of her mouth like the teeth of the animals Eric inexplicably hunts.
Director/Writer: Jan Jakub Kolski
Country: Poland
Studio: Tramway Studio Filmowe
Running Time: 99 mins
Certificate:18
Starring: Alexandra Michael, Agnieszka Pawelkiewicz,...
Hitman, Eric (Eryk Lubos) returns to his hometown to what appears to be his now empty childhood home, only to find it graffiti-covered and evidence of a squatter. Later while he destroys a beaver dam, a teenage girl (Agnieszka Pawelkiewicz) on a makeshift raft floats towards him. Kolski’s first close-up of her is comically presented with two sticks of gum protruding from either side of her mouth like the teeth of the animals Eric inexplicably hunts.
Director/Writer: Jan Jakub Kolski
Country: Poland
Studio: Tramway Studio Filmowe
Running Time: 99 mins
Certificate:18
Starring: Alexandra Michael, Agnieszka Pawelkiewicz,...
- 4/24/2013
- Shadowlocked
I slam three cups of coffee, and go see “Zabric Bobra,” aka “To Kill a Beaver,” an intense Polish film about a rogue operative who’s hiding out in a country farmhouse and hooking up with a local wild child while plotting some kind of complicated revenge. I’m impressed with the strong performance of the lead actor, Eryk Lubos. I’m also quite favorably impressed with a long and convincing sex scene that actually raises a blush on my maidenly cheek (as in, it’s hot). The director, Jan Jakub Kolski, is blurbed as “the master of Polish magical realism.” This one is more realistic than magical. Much later, checking his 14-film filmography online, I realize I saw his “Venice” (more magical than realistic) last year at the Seattle International Film Festival. I’m continually reminded during film festivals of just how much more there is out there than...
- 7/11/2012
- by Meredith Brody
- Thompson on Hollywood
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