Geza Rohrig
“SON OF SAUL” My rating: B+
107 minutes | MPAA rating: R
Holocaust movies are so ubiquitous that most of us simply tune them out. First, they’re a downer and, second, haven’t we seen it all before?
Well, no. At least not in the case of “Son of Saul,” Hungarian director Laszlo Nemes’ first feature, which approaches the horrors of Hitler’s “final solution” from a unique and soul-rattling vantage point.
Our “hero” is Saul (Geza Rohrig), a member of a sonderkommando unit at a Polish death camp. The sonderkommandos were Jews spared to do the dirty work for their German captors. After several months they, too, faced execution.
A typical day for Saul involves rising early, meeting a trainload of newcomer Jews, and herding them through the camp to the death house (he’s like a blank-faced elementary school crossing guard).
There the condemned are told that before receiving a meal and job assignments they should disrobe for a shower. They are reminded to remember the number of the hook where they have hung their clothing.
Once these new victims have been locked inside the death chamber, Saul and his fellow workers try to ignore the screaming and pounding. They search the clothing for valuables. Later they will cart the bodies away to be burned and scrub away the blood and feces to make way for the next batch.
All this is depicted in one long, uninterrupted take. It would be unbearable save for the presentational style Nemes has adopted.
Typically the only thing in focus is Saul’s face (sometimes the back of his head) which fills most of the frame. To the right and left, blessedly out of focus, we can make out piles of naked bodies and screaming German guards.
It’s a brilliant visual representation of how sonderkommandos like the inexpressive Saul avoid going mad: They look straight ahead, try not to taken in details, try to see the soon-to-die not as individuals but as a weeping, shuffling mass.
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