Son of Saul

SON OF SAUL 2015 by Director: László Nemes, is an incredible story where a memory embedded in the mind of a man in a concentration camp, (Géza Röhrig... Saul Ausländer) is the fundamental momentum and the very core that keeps the story and the protagonist going. This Nazi recount of the facts of that time is presented with tense precision than most other films about the subject that pale in comparison, is blunt, is taut, is tense, is intense, is more real than real for what it doesn't show than for what is shown, is dramatic, cruel, morbid, cold and acid, corroding, everything from bodies to souls, full of turns and twists and it's also very novel.

If once there was Hell on earth, this is it.

The camera is full of head-shots with great depth of field and an almost perfect sepia tone amid the B&W.

The terror is more suggestive than shown and this fact makes it stick even more, cutting and slashing the spiritual flesh of the protagonists and spectators alike, particularly when cruel tasks are assigned to be delivered to people who are close.

This is an experience as brutal as it's real, the presentation is subtle but the horrors are real. Words here say more than a thousand images where our imagination puts all the cruel pieces in place. The acting is phenomenal and the presence of our main subject permeates everything, like a witness who gets white hot tattoos in his mind, his constant stare, his eyes are the eyes of pain, we feel for him, we are with him in his quest till the last minute.

The recount never deviates from its main subject and is all focus. The story develops in between hope and despair, rebellion and death. But our hero never resigns, comply and obeys, he is slippery, cunning and supportive, a true survivor of Hell on earth.

Unity of prisoners is paramount to find a way out of the darkness. The story has its twists and turns in a very linear but unpredictable way. The humor of the captors provides a welcome relief as if they were really human. The end is a last memory encounter that brings joy to Saul and the end is enveloped in fog like a ghost about to materialize.