Hungarian Holocaust Drama ‘Son of Saul’ Tells of One Prisoner’s Anguish

Son of Saul,” a Hungarian Holocaust drama set 1944, tells the story of a Hungarian-Jewish Auschwitz prisoner, Saul Ausländer (Géza Röhrig), who is part of a work unit known as a Sonderkommando whose job it is to burn the victims of the gas chambers. After finding the body of a young teenager, possibly his son, Saul goes about finding a rabbi willing to give the boy a proper burial.

Meanwhile, realizing that they will soon be among the victims, the other members of the Sonderkommando plan a rebellion, of which Saul has no interest in being a part, his sole focus being to find a rabbi. The film is shown almost entirely from his point of view.

“Son of Saul” was filmed over 28 days at an old military base outside of Budapest. It is the first feature from director László Nemes, who also co-wrote the script. He originally met Röhrig while studying in New York. Röhrig, a poet and a teacher who had little acting experience before “Son of Saul,” is currently on leave from teaching at a K-8 Jewish school in Brooklyn to promote the film. His previous acting credits are two television films he made in Hungary in the 1980s.

Röhrig and Nemes spent many hours together going over the script line by line, each making a list of what they did and didn’t want in the film.

“We both wrote on separate pieces of paper that we didn’t want anyone crying in the movie theater because we thought, that’s a cheap, cheap thing to do,” Röhrig told The Wall Street Journal. “You feel better after crying and we wanted to deliver a punch that lasts a bit longer.”

“I didn’t want to do a history-book kind of film or a postcard kind of film,” added Nemes. “I wanted the viewer to be immersed.”

“Son of Saul” was screened earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival where it took home the second-most prestigious award of the competition, the Grand Prix. The film is Hungary’s nomination for this year’s foreign language Oscar. It has already been nominated for a Golden Globe.

Son of Saul” opens Dec. 18 in Los Angeles and New York.