Starring: Géza Röhrig, Levente Molnár, Urs Rechn
Son of Saul
Director: László Nemes
Rating: 4.5/5
Son of Saul is a movie that has already been whipping up a storm this year, winning the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar... finally, it has reached the big screen here in the UK.
We have already been treated to some wonderful foreign films so far this year and Son of Saul is one that you really cannot afford to miss if you are a fan of this genre of film.
The movie marks the feature film directorial debut of László Nemes - who also penned the screenplay - and it is one of the best debuts that we will see this year. He has delivered a moving and incredibly powerful film that will stay with you long after the credits have rolled.
October 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 body of a boy he takes for his son. As the Sonderkommando plans a rebellion, Saul decides to carry out an impossible task: save the child's body from the flames, find a rabbi to recite the mourner's Kaddish and offer the boy a proper burial.
There's no denying that Son of Saul is a harrowing movie as Nemes explores life within a concentration camp during World War II. This may be his feature film debut, but he has not shied away from showing the hardships and the horrors that faced those who were imprisoned there.
Géza Röhrig takes on the central role of Saul in the film and he delivers one of the most memorable performances of 2016 so far. It is this actor alone who carries this film and makes it what it is - he truly delivers a spellbinding performance.
He is a man who is struggling to stay alive in the most difficult and traumatic of circumstances. And yet, he is a man who knows that his own death is not far away. Working in the crematorium, Saul feels that he is part of the Nazi killing machine and is looking for redemption.
It is so hard to believe that Röhrig has almost no acting experience as he gives such a nuanced and devastating performance as Saul. There is a strength, a sadness, and a regret to this character and he balances of these elements of his this character so beautifully.
Together, Nemes and Röhrig have created one of the most intimate Holocaust movies that will take the audience on a true rollercoaster of emotions.
Son of Saul really is a very difficult watch but it is an essential movie when it comes to the Holocaust. We have seen the Holocaust explored many times on the big screen over the years, but never like this. You won't see another movie like Son of Saul all year.
Son of Saul is out now.