Some humanity did exist in 1944 Auschwitz, but definitely not from the Nazis

Rating: 9/10 (10 October 2015)

Saul fia (or Son of Saul) is a Hungarian film set in 1944 Auschwitz, about Saul Auslander (Géza Röhrig) who sets upon a personal journey to bury a child, who may or may not be his, instead of exposing that child to the norms of the genocidal extermination that was occurring at that time.
Saul fia was the 2015 Grand Prix award winner at the Cannes Film Festival and right away shows us the quality that earned the film it's award. The film is beautifully shot in the standard Academy 4:3 on 35 mm which gives it a very boxed in and very oddly personal feeling to the film, the characters, and the setting.
Upon initially seeing the child, Saul is on this mission to bury this child with dignity regardless of the danger that he is exposing himself to. Alongside this, is a side plot of the rest of his Sonderkommando (working clan) who are trying to hatch an escape plan to leave Auschwitz and it's horrors.
What is important is that the movie strives not to indulge in the horrors of what is going on in the background but instead focuses on Saul and his story. But that doesn't mean that the director forgets about its surroundings. The DP has taken glancing shots that when something catches Saul's eyes (as this film has a lot of over the shoulder 3rd person POV), the film draws focus on the plight of the Jewish people that are being exterminated in the soulless methods that the Sonderkommando are being forced to use by the Nazi's.
But the film is able to balance the way the plot runs between the escape plan with the burial plot by meshing the two plots together in a way where neither plot feels forced. That's entirely due to how Röhrig plays the role of Saul, because he is forced to make deals with members of the Sonderkommando and thus needs to help with the escape plan, but he always reverts his way back to his own storyline.
Saul fia is a movie that is sure to resonate with any person who watches it, and will make you think about the struggles and horrors that the Jewish people had to go through during WWII at Auschwitz. As well as showing how the captive Jewish workers at Auschwitz were forced to do these jobs and being absolutely helpless to the people that they had to "exterminate". Saul fia gets a near-perfect A