Son of Saul Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: Son of Saul
Year: 2015
Director: Laszlo Nemes
Country: Hungary
Language: Hungarian

Claude Lanzmann, the acclaimed director of Shoah (1985) and other documentaries about the Holocaust, has praised Son of Saul saying "It's a film that gives a very real sense of what it was like to be in the Sonderkommando. It's not at all melodramatic. It's done with a very great modesty."It has been similarly beloved by historians Zoltán Vági, Gideon Greif and Philippe Mesnard, Holocaust surviors like Nobel Prize winner  Elie Wiesel and Laszlo Nemes and critics from all over the world. It had a very small budget (1.5 million Euro) & ultimately succeeded despite setbacks.

Saul Auslander (Geza Rohrig), Hungarian prisoner working as a member of the Sonderkommando at one of the Auschwitz Crematoriums, tries to find a rabbi and bury the boy he takes for his son. This is a next to impossible task, as the Sonderkommando is to be liquidated at any moment.

 Between 15 May and 9 July 1944, approximately 437,000 Hungarian citizens of Jewish ethnicity were deported with 147 trains, mainly to the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. The vast majority of them being unfit for slave labour (either disabled, elderly or children) they were exterminated immediately upon arrival. The Hungarian government's quick collaboration with Nazi authority surprised even the most cold-hearted Germans. Unfortunately many authorities in Hungary today are in denial about their alliance with the devil; the country is still seeping with antisemitism and gypsy prejudice. Son of Saul is an important film because it does not allow Hungary to remain in its state of denial; its international success speaks volumes and prevents silence about such issues. 

The camera stays inches from Saul's face throughout the entirety of the two hour duration. Containing the action in the boxed-in 4:3 Academy ratio, it leads to the perception of being trapped in a hellacious underworld while never once straining credibility. It's an intimate experience that captures the immediacy of Saul's task. Son of Saul is a hard film to watch because it's blunt, confrontational and doesn't sugarcoat the hard life of Auschwitz. We see the pain, hear the agony and we can imagine what the burning flesh smells like. 

Far from sentimentalizing Saul's plight, Director Laszlo Nemes creates an atmosphere of emptiness and uneasiness that lingers from frame to frame. In a sense it's an inspiring and optimistic film that demonstrates mankind's desire for survival and the strength of hope alone, despite impossible odds. Even in Auschwitz, we can still find our faith in humanity. Still, the film is not for the faint of heart. I considered avoiding this picture because the subject matter can really be hard to take in. It's a masterpiece that tackles the Holocaust in a way no picture before it has.