Son of Saul: A Harrowing and Intense Tale

By Stacy Zakalik, JBFC Marketing Intern

The Academy Award nominated Son of Saul, directed by László Nemes, opens at the Burns Friday, January 29.

An uncompromising look at the Nazi death camps in World War II, this film follows the struggles of Saul Ausländer (Géza Röhrig), a Jewish concentration camp worker and member of the Sonderkommando, the group of Jewish prisoners forced to assist the Nazis with large-scale extermination. Amid a show of moral ambiguity that is a byproduct of being a member of the Sonderkommando, we find Saul clinging on to one last shred of morality—finding a rabbi to bury his son.

Son of Saul is a harrowing and intense tale, creating a completely different atmosphere from the Hollywood-produced Holocaust films we’re all too familiar with. Nemes works closely with his cinematographer to do something clever and different—everything is shot from Saul’s perspective. As we follow Saul around Auschwitz, witnessing him perform his day-to-day duties, we see everything he sees. The result? This film does not shy away from the most difficult aspects of this story, no matter how hard it might be for some viewers to watch. This unique, raw take won Son of Saul a much-deserved Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film at this year’s awards, the first-ever win for a Hungarian film.

Graphic, intense, and deliberately unsettling,  Son of Saul has earned its Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and will continue to spark discussion long after you leave the theater like this. Tickets are on sale now.