This movie succeeds in projecting some of the harshest realities of genocide it's at the very least a cautionary tale. Nudity (including full-frontal nakedness) is shown as people are rounded up on their way to their deaths and as their dead bodies are retrieved.
Inmates are brutally manhandled, forced to strip, shot, gassed, and burned to death.
Most of the violence takes place either off camera or in the background of the film's frames, but the full impact of the atrocities comes from the sounds of terror and chaos that accompany the visual images. While the brutal story is told almost entirely through the eyes of one Jewish inmate, the magnitude of the crimes against all those imprisoned there is made very real. Parents need to know that Son of Saul is a Hungarian film with English subtitles that takes place in Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp.
And yet his eyes speak volumes, which is especially vital since much of the film is shot in close-ups of his face. What the synopsis and the trailer doesn't show you is Géza Röhrig's shattering lead performance, which is remarkably understated. Röhrig spends much of the film wearing a stoic poker face, the kind of deadpan one adopts when even a single wrong glance can mean certain death. While working in one of the crematoriums, Saul discovers the body of a boy he takes for his son.Īs the Sonderkommando plans a rebellion, Saul decides to carry out an impossible task: save the child's body from the flames, find a rabbi to recite the mourner's Kaddish and offer the boy a proper burial. Saul Ausländer is a Hungarian member of the Sonderkommando, the group of Jewish prisoners isolated from the camp and forced to assist the Nazis in the machinery of large-scale extermination. If you do need to know more, the film's official synopsis will fill in all of the necessary gaps: Everything you need to know going into the movie is available right here: this movie looks utterly unique and it has collected its fair share of accolades. The new Son of Saul trailer is light on plot, but heavy on critical praise and stunning imagery. However, a new trailer for this incredible film has arrived, which should serve as a reminder to check out this movie as soon as you have a chance (and on the big screen, if you can make that happen). It's not like brutal Hungarian Holocaust dramas are a common sight at your local multiplex.
While you have heard about it, chances are strong that you haven't had a chance to actually see Son of Saul. It even made my personal top 10 of 2015, which is surely the greatest honor of them all. It took home the foreign film award at the Golden Globes last week. This harrowing drama is the current frontrunner for Best Foreign Language Film at this year's Academy Awards. There's a strong chance you've heard about László Nemes' directorial debut, Son of Saul.