Son of Saul



Son of Saul (Saul fia) is a 2015 Hungarian historical drama film directed by László Nemes and co-written by Nemes and Clara Royer.

Saul Ausländer (Géza Röhrig) is a Hungarian member of the Sonderkommando, a group of Jewish prisoners isolated from the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp and forced to assist the Nazis in large-scale extermination. In October 1944, Saul witnesses the death of a boy he takes for his son. As the Sonderkomando plans a rebellion, Saul decides to do the impossible: get a rabbi and bury the body.

The film has been praised for its intense, yet subtle take on the Holocaust, and averting the typical treatment for a film of its genre. It won the Grand Prix at Cannes, the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards.


 * Artistic License History: the whole film happened on an autumn. The director knew this, but he had to shoot the film in the summer.
 * Artistic License Religion: Intended. According to the director, Saul is "not a religious person, and actually makes mistakes about what it means to bury in the Jewish way. You don't need a rabbi, you need ten people saying the Kaddish, so he never gets that right."
 * Black and Gray Morality
 * Book Ends The film begins and ends with a shot of an open field behind a forest.
 * Chekhov's Gunman: Ella.
 * Concentration Camp
 * Double Entendre: An officer, says something to the effect of "Didn't take you long, huh?" We know what really happened.
 * Dramatization
 * During the War
 * Every Man Has His Price: The kapo really like jewellery.
 * Foreshadowing: Many people in Saul's group lament their imminent death.
 * A kapo gets an important order: list 70 people for "cleansing."
 * Some of the men suspect that the rabbi Saul brought with him is a fake.
 * Little Hero, Big Holocaust
 * No Pronunciation Guide: Saul pronounces his name "Shaul," unlike how most people would say the name.
 * Hope Spot: When Saul and his group
 * MacGuffin: The young corpse, Ella's powder.
 * MacGuffin Escort Mission: Saul and his "son"'s corpse.
 * MacGuffin Title
 * Meaningful Name: "Saul" is a well-known biblical name, while "Ausländer" is a Jewish name similar to the name of acclaimed Israeli historian and Third Reich expert Saul Friedländer. "Ausländer" is also a common word in the German language and means "foreigner".
 * The Oner: Many scenes in the film, but most notably the first one where Saul and his group escort Jews for transport.
 * Pinball Protagonist: Saul just wants to bury his "son", Holocaust be damned.
 * Plot Armor: Saul gets himself on dangerous situations many times.
 * Running Gag: One member of the Sonderkommandos really wants gold for himself.
 * Shout-Out: An officer comments, upon seeing the boy who survived a gassing, that he only saw one case like it, that of a girl. (This is the subject of The Grey Zone, a Holocaust film with a similar plot.)
 * One sequence recreates the secretive taking of the only photographs of the extermination process in Auschwitz-Birkenau that still exist. Saul directly influences the historical event.
 * Signature Style: Shot entirely with a 40mm lens, which creates a very shallow depth of field, and almost always focused on Saul.
 * Silence Is Golden: The film has very little music, aside from some subtle history-accurate tracks playing in the background.
 * Take That: (In-Universe) At one point, a nazi physician insults Saul by performing a Jewish dance and singing a traditional song with sarcasm, brutalizing him in the process. Other physicians are cheering along.
 * Two Lines, No Waiting: Saul attempting to bury his son, and the Sonderkommando planning their uprising.
 * Unresolved Sexual Tension: It turns out
 * When He Smiles:
 * You Have Failed Me: Downplayed. Saul, upset that a Greek rabbi won't help him bury "his son," causes an event that leads to the Greek guy's execution.
 * Silence Is Golden: The film has very little music, aside from some subtle history-accurate tracks playing in the background.
 * Take That: (In-Universe) At one point, a nazi physician insults Saul by performing a Jewish dance and singing a traditional song with sarcasm, brutalizing him in the process. Other physicians are cheering along.
 * Two Lines, No Waiting: Saul attempting to bury his son, and the Sonderkommando planning their uprising.
 * Unresolved Sexual Tension: It turns out
 * When He Smiles:
 * You Have Failed Me: Downplayed. Saul, upset that a Greek rabbi won't help him bury "his son," causes an event that leads to the Greek guy's execution.