This is not a holocaust movie. This movie is about eternal human problems and conflicts.

Rating: 10/10 (25 June 2015)

The first 15 minutes was very though and unbelievably shocking. The 'in medias res' beginning warns you that your life can change in a moment, in one moment someone says you that they need you and you will get a cup of tea, just take a shower, then everything will be fine, and in the very next moment you are dead. And all the people around you. This is the first important message of the movie for me: nothing - good or bad - is eternal. Anything can disappear in a moment. Even your life or everything you believed in.
The cinematography is classic and brand new at once. The 4:3 ratio and the concept of concentrating on the faces and the human beings, not on the grand total of the death camp in the background is just another tool of putting the movie away from holocaust and the death camps, and you can imagine that this story can happen in any other cruel situations and at any time.
For me it was unclear whether it was son of Saul or not. I suppose not. I suppose it was another psychological effect of the circumstances: finding a purpose when you realize that your life does not count anymore: picking a boy, telling yourself that it is your son, and you have duties about him.
It is also a movie about the difficulty of choosing between the purposes of an individual and the group. What has more importance? Your last individual goals when you feel that everything (even your life) is lost or trying to help the group saving the situation? Another question: was this a real choice? Did it make any sense? Are you supposed to choose? Are you supposed to help the group? Are you supposed to give yourself up for the aims of the group? (These are very 21st century questions, which also puts the movie away from the holocaust topic.)
This is not a holocaust movie. This is a movie about being a human being within inhuman circumstances and finding a final goal in life when you realize that your life cannot last for more than a few days. It is a masterpiece.
I don't like to tell about any movie or books that this a "must to be seen" or "must to be read", because if you make something obligatory, it may not have the supposed effect. But this movie is an exception. This movie is a must for everyone. All over the world.