Hungary is not a country to globally famous for its modern cinema,
though manages to scrape a film or two into the London Film Festival line-up,
which I, of course, now have to go and see. This year, with its one fine,
Hungary sees itself nominated for the Official Competition with the Cannes
Grand Prix-winning 'Son of Saul'.
Now, I'm no expert on Hungarian cinema, or cinema from any nation to
that matter, but the Hungarian cinema I've seen tends to focus more on the
darker side of life, be it black comedy or World War II drama. With 'Son of Saul',
László
Nemes' debut feature, we see an intense drama set in a
concentration camp in Auschwitz.
Saul is a Hungarian Sonderkommando in a camp, tasked with cleaning up
the dead from the gas chambers. When a young boy is found choking when
performing their duties, Saul witnesses German soldiers suffocate him. Saul
then makes it his mission to give the boy a decent burial, hiding the boy's
body while he seeks a rabbi, against the will of his fellow Sonderkommandos,
whom plot their escape.
'Son of Saul', therefore is very much a film about an individual, as
one man fights against an oppressive regime and his fellow prisoners, in an
attempt to feel human again. With this the case, director Nemes chose to film almost
from first person perspective, with the camera trained over Saul's shoulder or
on his face throughout. Long takes with this cinematography create a very
intense and personal experience, as the viewer experiences every step of Saul's
journey.
In what is a difficult subject matter to tackle, Nemes uses a unique
approach to create a very personal film, that the viewer feels every step of
the way. It is a film that is cramped, uncomfortable and furious, dynamic and
inventive in its approach in what is very good filmmaking from a debuting director.
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