Original Title
Saul fia
Genres
Drama, War
Director
László Nemes
Country
Hungary
Cast
Géza Röhrig, Levente Molnár, Urs Rechn, Sándor Zsótér, Todd Charmont, Christian Harting, Kamil Dobrowolski, Attila Fritz, Tamás Polgár
Storyline
It follows two days in the life of Saul Auslander (Géza Röhrig), a Hungarian prisoner at Auschwitz who tries to save from the flames the body of a boy he takes for his son.
Son of Saul is the story of a man who has lost his humanity, just like everyone else in his condition. However, this man commits himself to do something that is beyond insane, rescuing a dead boy that might be or might be not his son, so to regain some of that humanity and morality. At some points though, I really questioned his mission and his sanity as he put at risk the lives of many others in order to do what he thought was the right thing to do. And his journey is a little too repetitive.
Also, there was something missing. I believe that in order to be more effective the story needed an antagonist. Not the Nazis in general, but a single man with a personality that created some "real" conflict with Saul. The problem is that all the character, both prisoners and Nazis, are pretty bland.
Other than that, the film is almost spotless. Nemes did a fantastic job capturing the horrors of the Holocaust such as the inhumane conditions and the constant struggles, and he succeeded in what he tried to do, show that there are no Holocaust survivors. He could have been a little more accurate with the real conditions of the prisoners though because they were thinner, weaker, their clothes sure weren't that good, and a lot of them were starving and sick.
Moving on, there's still one aspect of the movie I haven't mentioned, the best one, in my opinion, the cinematography. The film is shot from an over-the-shoulder perspective that keeps you focused on Saul all the time. We never get the big picture, we only see glimpses of what was going on in the camp, and I think that's the film's greatest strength because it allows it to fully focus on Saul's hopeless mission.
Opinion
There are a lot of movies about the Holocaust and I was expecting Son of Saul to be just that, another Holocaust movie. Thank goodness it wasn't just that, but also a powerful and haunting film about what it means to be human.Son of Saul is the story of a man who has lost his humanity, just like everyone else in his condition. However, this man commits himself to do something that is beyond insane, rescuing a dead boy that might be or might be not his son, so to regain some of that humanity and morality. At some points though, I really questioned his mission and his sanity as he put at risk the lives of many others in order to do what he thought was the right thing to do. And his journey is a little too repetitive.
Also, there was something missing. I believe that in order to be more effective the story needed an antagonist. Not the Nazis in general, but a single man with a personality that created some "real" conflict with Saul. The problem is that all the character, both prisoners and Nazis, are pretty bland.Other than that, the film is almost spotless. Nemes did a fantastic job capturing the horrors of the Holocaust such as the inhumane conditions and the constant struggles, and he succeeded in what he tried to do, show that there are no Holocaust survivors. He could have been a little more accurate with the real conditions of the prisoners though because they were thinner, weaker, their clothes sure weren't that good, and a lot of them were starving and sick.
Moving on, there's still one aspect of the movie I haven't mentioned, the best one, in my opinion, the cinematography. The film is shot from an over-the-shoulder perspective that keeps you focused on Saul all the time. We never get the big picture, we only see glimpses of what was going on in the camp, and I think that's the film's greatest strength because it allows it to fully focus on Saul's hopeless mission.
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