Baltimore’s Charles Theatre is currently showing the Hungarian film Son of Saul in the wake of the film’s Oscar victory in the category of “Best Foreign Language Film.” The movie, which is director László Nemes’ feature film debut, follows a Hungarian-Jewish man, Saul Ausländer, as he navigates the living hell of Auschwitz.
Saul, played by Hungarian actor-poet Géza Röhrig, is no mere prisoner; he is a member of the Sonderkommando, which were work units tasked with clearing and destroying the bodies of the gas chamber victims. These men lived apart from the rest of the camp so as to keep them from revealing the brutal secrets of the “showers.” The opening of the film told the audience that, for this reason, the Sonderkommando were also known as the Geheimnisträger: “the bearers of secrets.” Saul’s work is about as heinous and shocking as anything could ever be, but he works without visible distress until he finds the body of a boy he thinks is his son. After that, the terminal stability of his life and the camp’s quickly degenerates.
It should not really come as a surprise to anyone that this is a good movie. It is also one of the more visceral, gut-wrenching and shocking films in a genre that has no shortage of horror. What is unique about the story of Son of Saul is the protagonist’s position in the camp. As a Sonderkommando, Saul and the supporting cast are party to the most base and twisted acts of the Holocaust. The point-of-view that Saul’s role offers is accented by the cinematography in the film. The camera remains fixed on Saul’s face for the majority of the film, leaving the horrors in the background blurry. This framing makes the brutality seem mundane to Saul and thus, all the more shocking for the viewer. It also characterizes divisions amongst the Sonderkommandos, who like all prisoners, stand apart from one another in religion, nationality and language. Much of the dialogue is incomprehensible with voices used as background noise that the viewer eavesdrops on.
The director takes this perspective and uses it to horrifying effect. The opening scene of the film finds Saul and a group of Sonderkommando units ushering men, women and children off of a train and into the “showers.” The men stand outside as the grey doors are locked, waiting patiently. The camera remains fixed on Saul’s face for the whole scene, including the point at which the voices of those behind the doors turn into screams. Those screams are drowned out by a pounding on the walls so loud that it engulfed the theater, drowning out any other sound and thought — and then it stops. The viewer sees Saul’s face, mouth and nose covered by a rag. Behind him, in soft focus, a pile of naked bodies sits at the center of the room.
Compare this scene to the opening of Saving Private Ryan, which is thought of by many as being especially gory and hard to watch. The difference is in Saving Private Ryan, the soldiers are armed and stand a fighting chance — as it were. In Son of Saul, the people forced into the gas chambers have nothing — no weapons, no plans, not even clothing. For that reason, the first fifteen minutes of Son of Saul are easily some of the most shocking in modern film. That short introduction is followed by an hour and a half of beautiful and simple acting, drama at the knife’s edge and escalating tension that holds the audience hostage until the end.
Nemes’ film is nothing if not worthy of its awards. Never has something so horrible been so gripping and somehow even beautiful. Son of Saul is an expression of humanity amongst the inhuman, shot with artistic contrast between foreground and background.
It is the story of a man placed in a uniquely horrible situation attempting to find a degree of morality within the evil he is involuntarily a part of. Saul is trying to draw a connection to someone or something in an environment where everyone is working together and against one another. Ultimately, he is surviving in a place of death. It seems unfair to delve into the plot of this film beyond the opening scene. So much more is at stake than the “son” Saul finds in the gas chamber. Son of Saul is a forest of subplots that the protagonist has to navigate to survive.
