SummaryOctober 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau. Saul Ausländer is a Hungarian member of the Sonderkommando, the group of Jewish prisoners isolated from the camp and forced to assist the Nazis in the machinery of large-scale extermination. While working in one of the crematoriums, Saul discovers the corpse of a boy he takes for his son. As the Sonderkommando pl... Read More
Directed By:László Nemes
Written By:László Nemes, Clara Royer
Son of Saul
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
91
User score
Generally Favorable
7.3
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Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
91
96% Positive
47 Reviews
47 Reviews
4% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Sep 1, 2020
100
It’s not the banality of evil that chills so much here as its matter-of-factness. This is really something.
Dec 18, 2018
100
Röhrig’s performance is an extraordinary feat of minimalism. His expressions convey a deadened spirit. Yet behind his eyes and at the corners of his mouth are signs of a spirit that won’t be crushed.
User score
Generally Favorable
7.3
74% Positive
133 Ratings
133 Ratings
14% Mixed
25 Ratings
25 Ratings
12% Negative
21 Ratings
21 Ratings
Dec 18, 2024
10
"Son of Saul" tells the story of a Jew during the Holocaust who has a role as a worker in the camps. The film opens with Saul Ausländer helping the **** carry out their routine of gassing tons of people by working lower positions such as collecting coats and sweeping floors. Saul, played by Géza Röhrig, and others in his position, are scheduled to be killed in the near future and they know this. In many ways, they're dead already. So much of this film is carried on Röhrig's performance. He feels completely immersed in the world of Saul. His gaze is trained to look downwards and he reacts without emotion to the suffering around him. He's been completely numbed, stripped of a soul, performing orders with the compliance necessary to minimize further suffering. Géza Röhrig carries all of this through his eyes and physical performance every second he's on screen, and he's on screen pretty much every second. Lászó Nemes keeps the camera on Saul all the time, filming each scene as a closely held tracking shot. The background is often blocked out because of the style, and sound plays a huge role in our experience. The filming style, like Röhrig's performance, conveys the numbness of the character's soul. This isn't the kind of Holocaust film that asks us to cry at the events. Rather, we respond to them more coldly, feeling as Saul feels about his environment. Saul's personal mission is to find a rabbi and properly bury the body of a child he's snuck out of the medical room. Meanwhile, a rebellion is being plotted among the Jews, but Saul doesn't play an active role in it. While most are fighting for life, Saul is fighting for death. He is the only one who understands in all ways that count, that they are already dead, that the **** have numbed them and stripped them of life. Saul fights for the soul, the only thing that can't be taken from him. There is a lot that is conveyed through the filming style and lead performance, but the style feeds us the same information over and over. As a result, the style can only carry the film so far when not much is occurring with the story. Son of Saul feels like it could be a fair chunk shorter and have the same impact. However, the film mostly makes up for this with a very powerful ending that will leave audiences appropriately speechless.
Apr 19, 2020
10
Excelente película sobre el holocausto. Muy recomendable. Cruda, pero se revive lo que pasó en esa época.
Dec 18, 2015
100
It’s that devotion to truth that makes Son of Saul such a difficult watch — and also one of year’s most important masterpieces.
May 24, 2015
100
In terms of filmmaking prowess, "remarkable" may not do Laszlo Nemes' holocaust drama "Son of Saul" justice.
Dec 14, 2015
90
The remarkable thing is that Son of Saul is a début: Nemes has never directed a full-length film before. As for Röhrig, he is a poet as well as an actor, born in Budapest and now living in the Bronx. If neither of them made another movie, this one would suffice.
Dec 18, 2015
88
There's nothing trivial about this Hungarian masterwork from first-time director László Nemes. You don't merely witness horror, you feel it in your bones.
Jan 8, 2016
40
The movie doesn’t expand in your mind — it shrinks along with its protagonist, its conclusion a reductio ad absurdum.
Dec 31, 2017
10
this movie is amazing, very beautiful, and natural, one of the best movie ever, very recommended movie to watch and to learning.
Jul 20, 2023
6
Crushing and beautiful at times but the films freezes throughout its running much like the scenes of despair it creates, cold and numbing.
Jan 27, 2020
6
It won Grand Prize in Cannes (2nd place), and the oscar for foreign film, from Hungary. It is a visceral film, lots of closeups, very drab coloring. I can appreciate that he wants a burial for his son, but he seems blind to everything else and seems selfish. It feels like it is filmed in a few long takes, that's always impressive.
Dec 18, 2015
6
Son of Saul is one of those important films that comes so steeped in the injustices and horrors of its history that one feels positively guilty about saying anything negative about it. This unique perspective on the holocaust atrocities has us following Saul, a Hungarian Jew, working as a Sonderkommando at Auschwitz/Birkenau. Here his daily work is to herd hundreds of his fellow race naked into the gas chambers and subsequently remove the bodies, effecting a clean-up of all traces of the horror. After one such routine a young boy is discovered, barely alive, having survived the gas. From this point in, although the boy subsequently dies, Saul becomes obsessed by having him properly buried by a Rabbi. The ambiguity surrounding whether or not the boy is actually Saul’s son casts the actions of the protagonist in a contrasting light, depending on viewer interpretation. It is precisely this unanswered question that causes confusion in the narrative which, in turn, has an overall detrimental impact. The film’s style further distances. Told from Saul’s viewpoint almost totally, one watches intently but real emotional involvement is kept at bay. Long tracking shots, out of focus imagery and an in your face claustrophobic feel becomes somewhat overwhelming. Likewise, the frenetic and dizzying camera movements don’t always allow time to process exactly what is happening. I’m sure this is intentional and in keeping with the chaotic context but, as cinema it is frustratingly unsatisfying. There are two standout sequences, however. The first, where Saul finds himself stripped naked awaiting execution and the second involves an escape. Overall the film cries out to be seen (the critics seem to have been inventing superlatives for it). I just wish that I liked it as much as I appreciate it.
May 24, 2018
0
Il faut toujours aborder avec précaution et circonspection les "palmes" du Festival de Cannes ; il faut s'y préparer psychologiquement, il faut rester fort. Surtout avec un film hongrois non doublé bien entendu.
Remarquez, il aurait été doublé que ça aurait été un gâchis impardonnable : il n'y a rien de pire que de mobiliser nos meilleurs doubleurs pour doubler... euh un "truc" pareil. Bref, ça ferait mal au cul, comme on dit. Pourtant, le sujet qui concerne les camps de la mort suscite évidemment une curiosité certaine. Mais souvent, la curiosité est un vilain défaut et on comprend pourquoi ici. Difficile donc de décrire cette "palme" mais nous tenterons néanmoins de le faire à nos risques et périls. Le film est en 4/3 et le film est à 95% (ou peut-être 97%) filmé derrière l'épaule du rôle principal et on sent bien que pour les 5 ou 3% restants, ça emmerde le réalisateur de filmer autre chose que l'épaule de l'acteur ou sa brave tronche de prisonnier. La caméra suit donc à la trace le gars et garde la mise au point exclusivement sur lui ; de cette façon, tout le reste est flou... et pendant tout le putain de film, on ne sait pas ce qui se passe dans le camp parce qu'on ne voit que la tronche ou l'épaule du pauvre gars qui veut enterrer son fiston. C'est donc pas regardable, ni au début, ni au milieu, ni à la fin. Et à part une scène précise (les exécutions au bord de la fosse) on pourrait se trouver dans n'importe endroit avec des prisonniers, n'importe quel camp de travail. Sauf que quand même ça parle allemand beaucoup évidemment et qu'on apprend la langue assez vite avec "ya wol et arbeit". Le plus dingue dans tout ça, c'est que le film passe directement par dessus la tête et que son impact est réduit à zéro. Et pourtant, un camp de la mort, ce n'est pas une simple anecdote. Mais avec ce film réalisé par un demeuré, ça le devient et ça l'est. Et les débiles à l'asile de Cannes, ils lui filent la palme. Nous aussi, on lui donne la "palme" mais pas pour les mêmes raisons...
Production Company:
- Laokoon Filmgroup
- Hungarian National Film Fund
Release Date:Dec 18, 2015
Duration:1 h 47 m
Rating:R
Awards
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Cannes Film Festival
• 4 Wins & 6 Nominations
