I think there's a hymn that goes, "Time, like an ever-rolling stream . . . "

Rating: 7/10 (19 February 2016)

" . . . bears all its sons away." That's what happens in SON OF SAUL, a subtitled allegory. The movie makers seem to be saying something along the lines of, "Let go of the past, and let the Dead bury the Dead." Just as Cruz and Bush must drop out to let Rubio thump Trump, the SON OF SAUL people are arguing that the Israelites should throw their lot in with the Crusaders to win a Final Victory in the Middle East. That's why they have written a script in which ALL the flag bearers for the Star of David perish, including half a dozen rabbis. Though Saul is shown digging graves for his son here, there, and everywhere, this movie prognosticates that in the end it's just a matter of "ashes to ashes, dust to dust." There's a Chinese Proverb that counsels, "If you can't lick them, join them." Which is what hundreds of Nazi detainees have done here in agreeing to be "Sondercommandos." Instead of forcing the Nazis to do their own lying and dirty work, these "cleaners" self-police to desecrate their own dead so efficiently that Hitler's minions can slay twice as many of their People in half the time. SON OF SAUL exposes this as an Ultimate Failure, the consequences of which still need redressing today.