IT is July, 1942 in Paris, and ten-yearold Sarah Starzynski (Mélusine Mayance) knows something is wrong. There is a panic spreading through the city as Jewish families are arrested and imprisoned.

In an attempt to save her family from concentration camps, she locks her fouryear- old brother, Michel in a bedroom cupboard—their secret hiding place. She promises to return for him, but she and her parents are dragged from their home forever.

Sixty years later, journalist Julia Jarmond (Kristin Scott Thomas) is assigned to write a cover story on the roundup of 1942.

What begins as research becomes more personal when Julia discovers that she and Sarah have something in common, prompting her to change her outlook on her husband, her adopted nation of France and herself.

Based on Tatiana de Rosnay’s bestselling novel, Sarah’s Key is showing at Southampton University’s The Phoenix on Wednesday.

See thephoenix.org.uk.

n IN 1988, Oliver Schmitz made Mapantsula, one of the great Apartheidera South African films.

In Life Above All, Tuesday’s offering from Winchester Film Society at Everyman Cinema, he unflinchingly explores family life in modern Johannesburg. Post-Apartheid South Africa is still split into the haves and have-nothings. This outstanding film is full of power and rage at what this means for people growing up there.

A massive hit on the art house circuit, this is a tough but rewarding watch.

See winchesterfilmsociety.co.uk.

THE world’s best singers, glorious music of the Baroque masters, and a story drawn from Shakespeare.

In The Enchanted Island, the lovers from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream are shipwrecked on his otherworldly island of The Tempest.

Inspired by the musical pastiches and masques of the 18th century, the work showcases arias and ensembles by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau and others, and a new libretto devised and written by Jeremy Sams.

Eminent conductor William Christie leads an all-star cast for The Enchanted Island, beamed live to Southampton’s Harbour Lights Picture House on Saturday.

See picturehouses.co.uk.