A JEW FINDS SALVATION IN SON OF SAUL
Director László Nemes has gone so far to the depths of the Nazi deathcamps that filmviewers are advised not to eat before sitting in their chairs before the screen. Otherwise, they may vomit as they view Jews entering a gay chamber, having their dead bodies removed, scrubbing down of gas chambers to be ready for the next batch, placing the bodies into ovens, shoveling of ashes into trucks, and shoveling of ashes from trucks into a body of water. Or as they hear wild sounds to accompany the action, including loud mechanical sounds, Nazis telling lies, issuing insults, and giving orders, and other undefinable and unwelcome sound effects. Saul Ausländer (played by Géza Röhrig) is one of 70 ablebodied Jews assigned to the task before they are all to be liquidated later and replaced by another group. After one teenage boy survives a gas chamber death, he becomes obsessed with the need to provide a proper Jewish burial, so he seeks out a rabbi and a place to dig, referring to the boy as his “son.” He joins a group that escapes into the woods (filming is in Budapest), and they find a hut to rest temporarily. But then for the first time smiles because he sees a boy of about the same age and appearance who has been sent as a scout by the Nazis to locate the whereabouts of those who have escaped. From the expression on his face, Saul seems to believe that his “son” has been resurrected. But the ending of a film about Nazis is rarely destined to be a happy one. The Political Film Society has nominated Son of Saul as best film on human rights of 2015. MH