Sunset director László Nemes’ unflinching Holocaust drama deservedly won both the BAFTA and Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
Saul Ausländer is a member of the Sonderkommando, the Jewish prisoners forced to assist in the machinery of the Nazi concentration camps. While at work, he discovers the body of a boy he recognises as his son. As the Sonderkommando plan a rebellion, Saul vows to carry out an impossible task: to save the child’s body from the flames and to find a rabbi to recite the mourner’s Kaddish and offer the boy a proper burial. Anchored by a riveting central performance from lead actor Géza Röhrig, Son of Saul is a moving and at times terrifying exploration of our capacity for varvarity and compassion. It is one of the boldest debuts in recent memory and is already hailed as a masterpiece of world cinema.
