30th EUFF - Saul fia (Son of Saul)
9:15 PM on Friday Dec. 4th, 2015
ByTowne Cinema, 325 Rideau St
9:15 PM on Friday Dec. 4th, 2015
ByTowne Cinema, 325 Rideau St
Hungary, 2015, 107 minutes
Hungarian, with English sub-titles
"A terrifyingly accomplished first feature for 38-year-old Hungarian writer-director Laszlo Nemes"
– Justin Chang, Variety
"“Son of Saul” does something remarkable: It finds an original way to look at the Holocaust cinematically, bringing a startling energy and a fresh look to a subject already explored countless times onscreen."
– Steve Pond, The Wrap
"By any standards, this would be an outstanding film, but for a debut it is remarkable."
– Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
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 corpse 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.
Winner
2015 Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Prix
Official Selection
2015 Toronto International Film Festival
2015 New York Film Festival
Hungary’s Official Selection for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Hungarian, with English sub-titles
"A terrifyingly accomplished first feature for 38-year-old Hungarian writer-director Laszlo Nemes"
– Justin Chang, Variety
"“Son of Saul” does something remarkable: It finds an original way to look at the Holocaust cinematically, bringing a startling energy and a fresh look to a subject already explored countless times onscreen."
– Steve Pond, The Wrap
"By any standards, this would be an outstanding film, but for a debut it is remarkable."
– Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
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 corpse 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.
Winner
2015 Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Prix
Official Selection
2015 Toronto International Film Festival
2015 New York Film Festival
Hungary’s Official Selection for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film