Son of Saul

[todthedog]

I have never seen a film like this one. Within thirty seconds of the start we are transported into the world of Saul working in a sonderkommmando in a nazi extermination camp, guiding the new arrivals to the gas chambers (showers) and then moving the pieces (dehumanisation bodies are described as such or it) to the ovens. Mass murder on an industrial scale. What makes this film remarkable is the camera focuses on Saul's face not on the brutality and horror. A face immobile but for the eyes. We experience this world through his experience of it. The film is about Saul's attempt to find a rabbi to properly bury the body of a young boy and not allow him to pass through the system. As a film it is superb a must see despite that It is a bleak testament to the dead and those about to die, and our place in a shared humanity, it's images are haunting, not comfortable but essential.