Welcome to Auschwitz

Rating: 9/10 (18 November 2015)

Another year, another Holocaust drama...but what a Holocaust drama it is! This film takes all narrative and cinematographic clichés one usually finds in films of this sort and dumps them straight into the trash. When you think about it, it's quite surprising that a subjective trip through Holocaust hell of this kind has taken so long to be made.
The story can be summed up rather quickly: Saul, a Sonderkommando (Jews who were forced to help the Nazi's in the concentration camps), tries to bury his son while his fellow Sonderkommando's are planning an escape. The opening scenes already set the tone as we see Saul being forced to help the Nazi's get the new batch of Jews undressed and into the gas chambers. As the ruckus what's happening behind the 'shower' doors gets louder and louder, the film cuts to a black screen with the film's title. Immediately, this film surpasses Schindler's List with its cop-out of a gas chamber scene. List, while a great piece of cinema in many ways, is in the end a story about a white man growing a conscience. Shoah, it is not. I imagine Spielberg wanted to recreate the Holocaust with a morally decent central narrative to not completely alienate his audience. Son of Saul has a similarly morally decent storyline (Saul trying to properly bury his son), but unlike List puts you smack-dab in the middle of Auschwitz for the duration of the film.
The true genius lies in the complete lack of cinematic manipulation. True, film is by its very nature a manipulative medium, but director Nemes presents this most horrific of horrors as authentically as possible. Ninety percent of the film consists of long shots where the camera sticks to Saul as if magnetically drawn to him, while the horrors taking place in the background tend to be out of focus. If Saul isn't looking at it, it's out of focus. The result is a highly subjective journey through Auschwitz. Nemes is also aware of what he can and cannot show: he doesn't pull any punches, but he also doesn't take us into the gas chambers, because he knows it there are some things that must not be seen. There are no typical cinematic tricks here: no establishing shots, no 'artsy' camera angles or filters, no music. It's a refreshing change of pace from how the Holocaust is usually presented.
The sound is also crucial to the film's impact. Since much of what we see in the background is out of focus, it's the sound that has to convey the hellhole we find ourselves in. Combined with the long shots, you rapidly become exhausted, so when a quiet scene suddenly appears, it's almost shocking.
In terms of acting, I was surprised how minimalist it was. One would expect there'd be all kinds of Big Emotions on display given the characters' circumstances, but it's precisely these circumstances that feed Géza Röhrig's (Saul) performance. Saul has a one-track mind and trying to survive in Auschwitz would lead you to shut everything out, to block out all emotions. Fully expressing yourself would lead to certain death, so Saul internalizes everything, so to speak. It's a very bold move from Nemes who could've easily included lots of Oscar-bait scenes, but didn't.
Even Claude Lanzmann, creator of the gargantuan Shoah documentary, who stated that depicting the Shoah is beyond film's capabilities has spoken of his great admiration for Son of Saul. I suppose that's the highest praise one can give to a Holocaust drama: Lanzmann liked it.