Son of Saul

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A Jewish-Hungarian concentration camp prisoner sets out to give a child he mistook for his son a proper burial.

Background

October 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Saul Ausländer is a Hungarian member of the Sonderkommando, the group of Jewish prisoners isolated from the camp and forced to assist the Nazis in the machinery of large-scale extermination.

While working in one of the crematoriums, Saul discovers the body of a boy he takes for his son.

As the Sonderkommando plans a rebellion, Saul decides to carry out an impossible task: save the child’s body from the flames, find a rabbi to recite the mourner’s Kaddish and offer the boy a proper burial.

Director

László Nemes was born in 1977 in Budapest, Hungary. After studying History, International Relations and Screenwriting in Paris, he started working as an assistant director in France and Hungary on short and feature films. For two years, he worked as Béla Tarr’s assistant and subsequently studied film directing in New York.

Son of Saul is his first feature.

Awards

Award / Film FestivalCategoryRecipient(s)
Academy AwardsBest Foreign Language FilmSon of Saul
American Society of Cinematographers AwardsSpotlight AwardMátyás Erdély (tied with Adam Arkapaw for Macbeth)
Belgian Film Critics AssociationGrand PrixSon of Saul
British Academy Film AwardsBest Film Not in the English LanguageSon of Saul
CamerimageBronze FrogMátyás Erdély
Cannes Film FestivalGrand Prix du JuryLászló Nemes
Cannes Film FestivalFIPRESCI PrizeLászló Nemes
Cannes Film FestivalFrançois Chalais PrizeLászló Nemes
Cannes Film FestivalVulcan AwardTamás Zányi
Chicago Film Critics AssociationBest Foreign Language FilmSon of Saul
Critics’ Choice AwardsBest Foreign Language FilmSon of Saul
Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics AssociationBest Foreign Language FilmSon of Saul
Dorian AwardsForeign Language Film of the YearSon of Saul
French Syndicate of Cinema CriticsBest Foreign FilmSon of Saul
Golden Globe AwardsBest Foreign Language FilmSon of Saul
Guldbagge AwardsBest Foreign FilmSon of Saul
Houston Film Critics SocietyBest Foreign Language FilmSon of Saul
Independent Spirit AwardsBest International FilmSon of Saul
Los Angeles Film Critics AssociationBest Foreign Language FilmSon of Saul
Manaki Brothers Film FestivalGolden Camera 300Mátyás Erdély
Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel AwardsForeign Feature FilmTamás Zányi, Tamás Beke, and Tamás Székely
National Board of ReviewBest Foreign Language FilmSon of Saul
New York Film Critics CircleBest First FilmSon of Saul
New York Film Critics OnlineBest Foreign Language FilmSon of Saul
San Francisco Film Critics CircleBest Foreign Language FilmSon of Saul
Satellite AwardsBest Foreign Language FilmSon of Saul
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics AssociationBest Foreign Language FilmSon of Saul

Year
2015

Film Type
Drama

Film Length
1 hour 47 minutes

Director
László Nemes

Screenplay
László Nemes
Clara Royer

Producer
Gábor Rajna
Gábor Sipos

Cinematography
Mátyás Erdély

Editing
Matthieu Taponier

Production Design
László Rajk

Costume Design
Edit Szücs

Sound Editing & Sound Mixing
Tamás Zányi

Casting Director
Éva Zabezsinszkij

Dialogue Coach (Yiddish)
Mendy Cahan

Starring
Géza Röhrig
Levente Molnar
Urs Rechn

Watch the Trailer

Images

Son of Saul