Son of Saul (2015, dir. Laszlo Nemes)

I recently revisited Viktor Frankl's book, "Man's Search for Meaning".  Frankl was a psychiatrist who survived a Nazi Concentration Camp during the Holocaust.  His main point was that a person who was able to survive the brutal, dehumanizing ordeal in the camps were the ones who had some kind of ultimate purpose or meaning in their lives that allowed them to see through another day.  As in the Concentration Camps, so in life.

Saul in Laszlo Neme's Son of Saul is able to find a purpose behind the nightmare, however horrible that meaning is.  Saul is a Sonderkommando in Auschwitz, meaning he is a Jew who is assigned the cleaning up of the Gas Chambers after Jews are gassed.  One day, he discovers a young boy who has somehow survived the Chamber.  The boy is quickly killed by Nazi doctors, but Saul finds in this boy's initial survival some kind of a connection and sees him as his "son".  It becomes Saul's life mission to provide a proper Jewish burial for the boy with a Rabbi, if he can find one.

This is a film that draws you in at the same time it repels you.  No film, not even Schindler's List has been able to present the reality of the Gas Chambers and Camps the way Son of Saul does.  The acting is powerful and amazing.  Geza Rohrig as Saul has a haunted look in his eyes:  he almost seems desensitized to the brutality around him, yet in his adoption of the young, dead boy and the risks he takes, he demonstrates his lingering humanity and hope.

The camera remains close to Saul as he wanders about his daily jobs, duties, and excursions.  This closeness of the camera keeps us confined to Saul's predicament and somehow lessens the nature of the nightmare going on around him.  It is a wonder of Steadicam usage and an efficient way to keep us invested in Saul's trajectory.

The film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and deservedly.  It is a harrowing, enlightening, and somehow beautiful account of an awful time in our collective history.