Son of Saul

Original title: Saul fia

2015
R
1h 47m

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

53K

YOUR RATING

In the horror of 1944 Auschwitz, a prisoner forced to burn the corpses of his own people finds moral survival upon trying to salvage from the flames the body of a boy he takes for his son.

Play trailer1:45

4 Videos

99+ Photos

Prison Drama Psychological Drama Tragedy Drama War

A Jewish-Hungarian concentration camp prisoner sets out to give a child he mistook for his son a proper burial.A Jewish-Hungarian concentration camp prisoner sets out to give a child he mistook for his son a proper burial.A Jewish-Hungarian concentration camp prisoner sets out to give a child he mistook for his son a proper burial.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

53K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 1 Oscar
- 65 wins & 61 nominations total

Videos4

Photos186

+ 178

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
During the preparation, director László Nemes, cinematographer Mátyás Erdély and production designer László Rajk made a pledge to stick to certain rules, or a "dogma", which included:
The film cannot look beautiful.
The film cannot look appealing.
We cannot make a horror film.
Staying with Saul means not going beyond his own field of vision, hearing, or presence.
The camera is his companion, it stays with him throughout this hell.

Goofs
The short text at the beginning says, that the members of the 'Sonderkommando' were killed after 3 months, but this is a simplification of the more complicated history. While it's correct that these men were supposed to be killed and replaced after a few months, in some cases they were killed much earlier and in other rare cases they could survive for over 2 years, like Filip Müller. This depended mostly on the skills of the individual 'Sonderkommando' slave worker, who was sometimes needed by the SS to train the new 'Sonderkommando' members, but also on pure coincidence and luck.

Quotes
Abraham Warszawski: You failed the living for the dead.
Saul Ausländer: We are dead already.

Connections
Featured in 73rd Golden Globe Awards (2016)

Soundtracks
Dream Faces
Written by William Marshall Hutchison
Performed by Elizabeth Spencer

User reviews157

Review

Featured review

9/10

Soul Destroying Cinema...

The unimaginable terror of a death camp, where you've become desensitised to the everyday slaughter and murder of herded souls to keep your sanity until a pause, as the machine fails its evil mandate and expels an innocence for manual extermination, and you're connection to a flame that died some time ago is relit, rekindled, reawakened, with perspectives reset and clarity restored, the overwhelming passion and desire to do what's right in the face of everything that's wrong, in the knowledge that it may be the last righteous thing you may ever do, or indeed anyone may ever do as far as you know in this world gone mad.

Outstanding performances, cinematography and direction in a story that will break your soul.