Official Synopsis
October 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau. Saul (Géza Röhrig) is a Hungarian member of the Sonderkommando, the group of Jewish prisoners forced to assist the Nazis. While working, Saul discovers the body of a boy he takes for his son. As the Sonderkommando plans a rebellion, Saul decides to carry out an impossible task: save the child’s body, find a rabbi to recite the mourner’s Kaddish and offer the boy a proper burial.
Director László Nemes and cinematographer Mátyás Erdély have done their best to tell the story of a Hungarian named Saul, who has tasked himself not only to survive the day-to-day life of a man involved in cleaning up the gassed/broken/burnt bodies of Jewish prisoners. Saul also tasks himself with taking the body of a gassed boy and find a way to give him a proper burial before Saul is discovered and shot. Neither task is easy.
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I have spent hours trying to figure out how this review would go. I have tried to break the movie up into a traditional three-act play, like I do with most movie reviews, but I’m not sure that is fair for this story. I wanted to discuss the acting, but the acting is spot on, as far as I know at least. It’s tough to critique a movie about a situation that I cannot possibly grasp. There was so much to the holocaust that I don’t know/understand, but films like this start piecing together a more horrifying view of what survivors went through just to get through, especially the small amount of humanity they tried to retain through the process.
So, I’m not going to critique the story, the characters or anything of the nature.
Having said that, I will praise the production crew, director and everyone included, for bringing such a tough story to life on film. For taking a chance on trying to emulate the conditions, both mental and physical, with a movie like Son of Saul, while being respectful to the dead at the same time. It could not have been an easy task to breath life into this story that features such an incredible amount of death and a bittersweet conclusion. Nemes and Erdély took it on and pulled it off perfectly. Balancing the human element of survival with the harsh truth of the situation.
Anyway, instead of doing the usual, let me just tell you how they put you there. How the filmmakers put you in the shoes of participants of this horror opus. How they made you understand the conditions, environment and situation these characters lived through. It’s quite remarkably simple, yet fitting and powerful.
The majority of the film’s credit should go to cinematographer Mátyás Erdély, who kept you in the face of Saul for most of the movie. Erdély’s eye for the moment kept the story uncomfortably close to the audience. The shots were tight, the majority of the footage was Saul’s face and his worn expression throughout his entire situation. The lens traps you in every moment and it does it with no great tricks. The movie was shot on 40mm and maintained the aspect ratio of 1.375:1. That translates to a shortage of frame to the left and right, which is not typical for films in this day and age. That simulates an almost claustrophobic amount of eye space for the viewer, where the mind is struggling and wanting more room to work with, but the film isn’t giving in to the demand. This also translates to forcing the viewer to stay on Saul and keep up with what he has to keep up with on a day-to-day basis in his forced hell. The cinematography is incredibly planned and executed perfectly, so much that the story itself becomes magnified and far more powerful than if the entire frame was freed. It’s a stunning decision for the film and it works so darn well.
In addition to the cinematography, all players involved, especially Géza Röhrig’s Saul, should be commended for their full commitment to their respective, yet tragic roles. Röhrig’s lack of expression for the majority of the film and his sincere drive to get his ‘son’ buried in the film is spectacular. You just want to hug the man and let him know it’s going to be alright. That is how good his performance is in the movie. Everyone around Saul also did a fantastic job and sold the horrific situation their characters had been placed in. They truly show the scars of nazi atrocity and what that will do to human beings. Their efforts are triumphant and honorable.
Overall, Son of Saul is a masterpiece. If movies like Sophie’s Choice or Schindler’s List give you some aspects of the aftermath of the nazi movement, Son of Saul will put you right in the middle of it all and ask you to walk in the shoes of those that didn’t survive. It is another piece to a big puzzle and one that shouldn’t be missed.
Special features included:
· Commentary with director László Nemes, actor Géza Röhrig and cinematographer Mátyás Erdély
· Museum of Tolerance Q&A with director László Nemes, actor Géza Röhrig and cinematographer Mátyás Erdély
· Deleted Scene
