WINNER: Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival
With the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary
László Nemes’ brilliant debut feature is propelled by the same harrowing intensity as its central
character, a Sonderkommando at Auschwitz-Birkenau who is forced to assist in the grisly
day-to-day management of the exterminations. When Saul recognises a boy who miraculously,
but only fleetingly, survives the gas chamber, he decides to give him a proper burial. However, his
search for a Rabbi to recite the mourner’s Kaddish places both his own life and the escape plan
hatched by his fellow inmates in jeopardy. From its blurred opening shot, with Saul only coming
into focus when he is inches away from the camera, Nemes eschews any grand overview of the
Final Solution in favour of a penetrating, subjective portrait of one man’s experience. As Saul
travels through every part of the camp on the search, the atrocities are heard off camera, or
glimpsed beyond the focus of Saul’s immediate vicinity, consistently reinforcing the horror and
barbarity. Son of a filmmaker and for a time, assistant to Bela Tarr, Nemes urgently declares
himself a major new directorial talent.
Clare Stewart
BFI London Film Festival
With special guest László Nemes