Son of Saul (2015)

Directed by László Nemes, Son of Saul captures the Holocaust like no other. The film takes places in the horror of Auschwitz as our protagonist Saul lives out his experience as a prisoner. The narrative of the film is written to amplify the events of the Holocaust. Cinematographer Mátyás Erdély presents this film like no other. The entirety of the film's visuals remains within Saul’s field of view, hearing or presence portraying a sense of companionship between Saul and the camera. To accompany all of this everything is short in the unconventional aspect ratio of 1.375:1 to reiterate a field of vision. This strong and close relationship allows the audience to connected to our protagonist easily, experiencing the drama he faces with full force.

The art direction in the film yet again adds to the madness of the Holocaust. It feels like we are almost there, through many long tracking shots, the order and route to the sets make perfect sense and reveal most of the story to us.

The music is Son of Saul is key to most of the emotions we take on throughout the film, it also used well to set the pace of the film and create the ambiance as chilling. The sound is second to none and possesses a lot of the storytelling as the focus is on Saul. Therefore the foley sounds must be accurate for it to make sense to the audience.

Saul is fantastically played by Géza Röhrig. Again relating to storytelling, saul is our main form of information, emotions, viewpoint, and relationships are all portrayed by the character, along with many more elements.

There is a real force and purpose to making this film which makes it really shows as a final piece, it was made for a purpose, to remind us of these events, so they never happen again. The filmmaker's dedication is proved through the film, such as research aspects, for instance, the Sonderkommando photographs, which I quite liked that they included. There is some form of origin to the story, through stories that were lived within Auschwitz when the film is set.

If there was one word to sum up Son of Saul it would be, different. Its unique in many ways and is always worth the watch as it is something new. All the original conventions are thrown out the window and you are left with the peculiar monument which is Son of Saul.