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Overall the film cries out to be seen (the critics seem to have been inventing superlatives for it). The first, where Saul finds himself stripped naked awaiting execution and the second involves an escape. There are two standout sequences, however.
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I’m sure this is intentional and in keeping with the chaotic context but, as cinema it is frustratingly unsatisfying. Likewise, the frenetic and dizzying camera movements don’t always allow time to process exactly what is happening. Long tracking shots, out of focus imagery and an in your face claustrophobic feel becomes somewhat overwhelming. Told from Saul’s viewpoint almost totally, one watches intently but real emotional involvement is kept at bay. It is precisely this unanswered question that causes confusion in the narrative which, in turn, has an overall detrimental impact.
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The ambiguity surrounding whether or not the boy is actually Saul’s son casts the actions of the protagonist in a contrasting light, depending on viewer interpretation. From this point in, although the boy subsequently dies, Saul becomes obsessed by having him properly buried by a Rabbi. After one such routine a young boy is discovered, barely alive, having survived the gas. Here his daily work is to herd hundreds of his fellow race naked into the gas chambers and subsequently remove the bodies, effecting a clean-up of all traces of the horror. This unique perspective on the holocaust atrocities has us following Saul, a Hungarian Jew, working as a Sonderkommando at Auschwitz/Birkenau. This unique perspective on the holocaust atrocities has us following Saul, a Hungarian Jew, working as a Son of Saul is one of those important films that comes so steeped in the injustices and horrors of its history that one feels positively guilty about saying anything negative about it. Son of Saul is one of those important films that comes so steeped in the injustices and horrors of its history that one feels positively guilty about saying anything negative about it.