[yasr_overall_rating]
In the horror of 1944 Auschwitz, a prisoner forced to burn the corpses of his own people finds moral survival upon trying to salvage from the flames the body of a boy he takes for his son.
Everything about Laszlo Nemes’ “Son of Saul” draws the audience more deeply, even more personally, into the experience of the Holocaust than any other fictional film on this subject. Nothing in the film is safe, and that Nemes confronts the audience immediately with images so horrific, you want to turn away, but can’t. Much as it was for Jews in the Holocaust itself, these horrors do not relent for the entire length of the film.
Saul and his fellow “Soderkommanders,” or “keepers of secrets,” are tasked with fulfilling the most gruesome jobs of the German reign of terror. They are Jewish men forced to clean up after the gas chambers have done their work, dispose of the bodies of dead Jews and collect their valuables and clothes after the deed has been done. They perform this task for only a few months before they themselves are killed. This fate weighs on each character throughout the film like a specter hanging just beyond sight in the shadows.
Saul himself causes a stir when a young boy briefly survives the gas chambers. As he takes the boy from a pile of naked bodies, referred to as “pieces,” he recognizes something in the child’s face. The rest of the film shows a seemingly irrational Saul moving the body and seeking a rabbi to perform the Kaddish, the traditional Jewish funeral rite. While obsessing over this child he believes is his own son, Saul puts himself, and many others, in considerable danger. Finding a practicing rabbi in a death camp presents many challenges because most rabbis were killed before entering the camp. Those who weren’t killed often lost their faith due to the conditions of the camp and the fate they came to understand. Saul, however, prioritizes his quest for Kaddish and burial of the body over everything else in the story.
Nemes shot his film on old style 88mm film using 4:3 dimensions and natural lighting to give “Son of Saul” a strong feeling of authenticity. Because the film feels so organic and “of the period” in which the story takes place, the actions of Saul carry great weight and impact. This spare film brings such authenticity and carries the audience so deeply into the horrors of the Holocaust, it feels much like eaves dropping on reality. The audience, in many ways, experiences each failure, each emotion, each action almost firsthand. Thus Nemes’ direction transcends simple filmmaking, and takes us into the heart of hell. His storytelling takes a small film and makes it feel large, infusing it with the atmosphere of death, hopelessness, and inhumanity. In this way, “Son of Saul” becomes a beacon for the truth of the atrocities of WWII in much the same way “12 Years a Slave” was a beacon for the truth of the atrocities of slavery. Nemes’ direction remains nearly perfect.
As Saul, Geza Rohrig shows equal amounts determination and confusion, often panicking when the body disappears from his site. His portrayal makes Saul sympathetic no matter the mistakes he makes. As a relative newcomer, he seems not to be acting, but instead inhabiting a space in time, a stand in for those Jewish men whose actions during this time have drawn ire and disdain, though they had no choice in what was required of them. In support, Levente Molnar and Urs Rechn stand out as would be revolutionaries trying to escape by any means necessary. Their characters, Abraham Warzawski and Oberkapo Biederman respectively, give voice to the utter hopelessness most Jews felt after so much horror. There is no false note among the acting. It remains simple and straightforward, a group of men and women accomplishing the impossible by so authentically creating such an intricate portrayal of the worst depths of man’s ability to destroy.
“Son of Saul” is a difficult, though important, movie to watch. No one glosses over the horror depicted here. In fact, the film is truly frightening in its realistic and believable portrayal of such horror. Through all of this inhumanity, though, Saul becomes human again in the futile quest he undertakes. He remembers who he was and what values he held important before the Germans stripped his life away from him. In that way, he gains a measure of control, of life, back again. The problem is that even his humanity comes at a high human cost.
Now playing at select theaters including the Magnolia Theatre in Dallas
