Verena Lueken, film critic for Germany's daily 'Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,' asked after the premiere, 'Can anyone imagine the filming process? The relationship between the actors and the characters they are playing?' She reached the conclusion: 'There are good reasons for the taboo that the Holocaust should not be the stuff of fiction. Is it legitimate for a fictional feature film to tackle the topic of concentration camps? Should brutal deeds, murders and gassing be portrayed by actors? The debate is not new - it has previously surfaced in literature, theater, art and philosophy. 'Son of Saul,' on the other hand, is characterized by sober simplicity, which makes it all the more impactful.Īfter the premiere in Cannes, critics touched on a fundamental problem in the film. A Jewish-Hungarian concentration camp prisoner sets out to give a child he mistook for his son a proper burial. 'They often try to tell a story of survivor and heroism,' while at the same time romanticizing the past. With Géza Röhrig, Levente Molnár, Urs Rechn, Todd Charmont. Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes 2015, a Golden Globe, and frontrunner for this year’s Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Son of Saul is Hungarian director László Nemes’ blistering debut feature a courageous and unflinching reimagining of the Holocaust drama. Nemes explained that he had already been frustrated by Holocaust films. 'I wanted to show the story as simply and archaically as possible.' That's what differentiates 'Son of Saul' from scores of other Holocaust films over the decades. He didn't intend to show everything that went on in the camp, he added. Nemes said he didn't want to take the position of a concentration camp survivor, explaining his aesthetic approach.

The intense use of sound lends the film a great deal of authenticity, to the point that it practically has the effect of a documentary. It follows our protagonist, Saul (portrayed with great nuance and facial acting skill by first time actor Géza Röhrig), over the course of two chaotic days in Auschwitz as the camp nears its liberation. Only the main protagonist and his direct surroundings are put in focus.Įverything else - even the crimes committed by the Nazis - seems blurry. Debut filmmaker László Nemes’ Son of Saul is, by a fair margin, the best film that I saw at the 2015 Cannes International Film Festival. Unusually, the film is shown in a square format, which pulls the viewer even more into the picture and the happenings in the camp. In an oppressive way, Nemes shows how courageous but also absurd this scheme is.

Saul Ausländer (Geza Röhrig, right) comes into conflict with the guards over his burial plans

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