Son of Saul

This one has only just been on at our cinemas until a few weeks ago, but I had seen it lined up on Apple movies for being released, so I thought it would be more justified to spend $8 to watch it at home rather than spend $17 to go to the movies.  Also I try to avoid going to movies where I may have a tendency to shed a few tears.  When Schindlers List was released I went with a couple of friends to a packed out movie theater in London.  At a couple of scenes there were a few bouts of sobbing from others in the audience which then gave me the wobbly lip and made the tears come.

Son of Saul is a Hungarian film which follows Saul for a day as he works at Auschwitz in the Sonderkommando - a group of prisoners whose job it is to direct the latest arrivals to the gas chambers, then to remove the clothes and take the bodies to the ovens.  When a young boy is found, Saul thinks it may be his son and seeks out a rabbi so that he may bury the child.

You can sense the horrors going on around him, but the camera mainly focuses on Saul himself and his increasing panic to find someone to help him.  At the same time other members of the Sonderkommando realize that their time will soon be up, and that they should attempt a revolt an try to escape.

An intelligent and moving movie that told an original story about a time in history that seems now so distant from our modern life.  4/5