Son of Saul (2015)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Son of Saul (2015) --  L. Nemes

There’s nothing like a movie about the Holocaust to put everything in perspective -- and Son of Saul is a very visceral and intense move about the Holocaust that can’t help but overwhelm.  Part of this tension is created by the strategy of keeping the hand-held camera close to the protagonist, Saul (Géza Röhrig), a member of the Sonderkommando, a group of concentration camp prisoners who are engaged in the dirty work of the camps, dealing with those who are gassed to death before and after they die.  This camera style means that often we see the horrors of the camp only at the periphery of our vision – or suddenly in full view, if the camera happens to look in a particular direction. In fact, as Saul moves through the day and across different locations in the camp, it becomes very clear that writer-director László Nemes’ real goal is to show us what happened in the camp (Auschwitz, in particular) in all its confronting and terrible detail.  Sure, there is a plot:  Saul becomes obsessed with finding a rabbi to say prayers over the body of a young boy who he comes to call his “son” before he buries the boy.  However, the plot feels very much like a means to an end, a means to show us this horror, although Saul’s sad and ill-fated, perhaps confused, obsession also seems a likely reaction to his role, a way to assuage what must be terrible guilt and sorrow.  The sonderkommando as a group are not well differentiated – they are angry tense men who eventually stage a futile escape attempt (based on true events).  The German soldiers are portrayed as cruel, using distancing strategies to dehumanise their victims.  It is the worst of human nature (an understatement if ever there was one), recreated vividly onscreen.  Forcing yourself to watch with your eyes open seems an important reminder to be mindful of those who are unjustly stigmatised among us.  And all the little trials and tribulations of your daily existence become small in comparison.