Son of Saul - A haunting portrayal of hope in the Holocaust ****************************************************************************************** * Son of Saul - A haunting portrayal of hope in the Holocaust ****************************************************************************************** Award-winning Hungarian film Son of Saul – directed by László Nemes and co-written by Neme Royer – was recently screened at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts. Son of Saul premier Cannes Film Festival in 2015 – where it won the Grand Prix – and went on to scoop many oth awards, including Best Foreign Language Film at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards and the Acade Best Foreign Language Film for the year 2015. The screening at Charles University was foll led by Jindřiška Bláhová, which involved discussions between co-screenwriter Clara Royer, Kolář and members of the audience – including many students from the Faculty of Arts and v departments within the university. Son of Saul is set during the Second World War and tells the story of Saul Ausl?nder (Géza Hungarian prisoner working in Auschwitz, the German Nazi concentration and extermination c of the Sonderkommando, Saul is forced to work in horrendous circumstances on a daily basis burn the bodies of the dead after they have been gassed to death in the chambers. One day, discovers the body of a young boy who is still breathing, which means he survived the horr chamber. Saul tries to save the young boy by getting him medical assistance but watches in helpless boy is suffocated to death by the doctor. Because he feels responsible for the yo takes him as his son and fights to protect him by striving to find a rabbi that can help g proper Jewish burial like he deserves. During the debate, screenwriter Clara Royer explained that the director, László Nemes, had something about the war for a while but could not decide what story he wanted to tell. How at the time of the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a on three manuscripts found in the ground after the war was published. This book captured t Auschwitz and, finally, the idea for Son of Saul was born – an amalgamation of various eve historically documented, including the stories of people who were forced to burn the bodie family. Essentially, Saul is a fictitious character, constructed to portray true events fr Film critic Jan Kolář admitted he had mixed feelings about the film, as there were aspects and did not like about it. He said he thought the technical aspects of the film were perfe the sound editing and the cinematography, which were equally impressive – and that overall clever, sophisticated movie. However, Kolář also voiced his main criticisms and thus, the began. First, Kolář pointed out the film only captured the perpetrators and the people for meaning that there was no story revolving around any survivors. Second, the depiction of g misrepresentation of how it was believed to have actually happened in the Second World War people went into the gas chambers to be killed then they did not come back out alive. Last the way that the camera mainly focuses on the face of Saul throughout the story, you are u wider picture; therefore it does not give an accurate representation of the scale of the H summed up his arguments by reiterating that he thought the movie was great on the whole, a found these problems with it they did not in any way distract from the main story itself. The debate host, Jindřiška Bláhová, offered her view that it must be extremely difficult t contemplating how to capture the Holocaust because of the sheer scale of it. Whether depic as an individual story, as is the case in Son of Saul, Bláhová implied the portrayal of th be a challenge either way, as the events which occurred must make it seem completely unima who did not actually experience it. Incidentally, even whilst watching Son of Saul and kno the gruesome scenes in it are based on real events, it is still difficult to believe such happened, merely because it is so tragic and it is a challenge to fully comprehend such ev mass scale. Royer agreed and in response to critic Kolář, explains it is impossible to show every stor Holocaust, so the most effective way to capture the evil of Auschwitz was to focus on tell story as this would then act as a window through which we can see the rest of the trauma t Auschwitz. From the opening shot, the camera is focused on Saul and as his personal story the bigger picture, we can still see all the awful events he has to deal with unfolding in Thus, this film does not in any way avoid the fact that this is the Holocaust, instead, th action in the background constantly reminds us of the horrors which occurred. Saul’s story desperation to do something right amongst all the immoral acts taking place – an act of hu brings a glimmer of hope in an otherwise treacherous world. Additionally, the tragic scenes throughout this film are impossible to ignore because they extremely powerful in their execution. The sheer extent of the mistreatment is conveyed by dehumanisation of the people who are mercilessly killed and discarded. Thousands of naked herded into the gas chambers like animals facing their fate at a slaughterhouse – or merel when the gas chambers are too busy to accommodate them – and then their lifeless bodies ar the dirty floor by their feet, with their arms sprawled out behind them. The ultimate insu that the soldiers refer to the dead bodies as ‘pieces’, which emphasises their disrespect as they are treated like objects and not humans.    Incidentally, Son of Saul approaches the Holocaust within a new generation and Royer admit significant for two reasons. First, she believes that nowadays, the Holocaust tends to liv in museums and it needs to be brought back into the open so that future generations can co about it. Second, she believes people need to address the past and attempt to deal with it continue living their lives. This film essentially acts as a means of doing this. However, and trauma can possibly be addressed, the memory of the Holocaust and the lessons learned on as a reminder to us all.   One audience member said she felt overwhelmed after watching Son of Saul at the screening has greatly affected her views on the Holocaust. Also, whilst she understands Royer’s theo difficult to capture every victim’s story in one movie, she says it would be amazing if Ro 6 million movies as brilliant as Son of Saul ­– to represent everybody’s individual tales survival, because all victims deserve their story to be told. Though the audience realises an impossible feat, everyone is silent in agreement as there are so many untold stories of deserve to be heard. Overall, Son of Saul is a successful and historically accurate depiction of the Holocaust one man’s eyes – a film which is stylistically and creatively executed to convey the horro whilst simultaneously offering a glimmer of hope amongst all the tragedy. Though it is at watch, it has been constructed in a manner which is incredibly powerful and thus evokes a explains that your senses are constantly under attack – so there is no escape – and you ar it. She suggests that what matters in the end is what you take away from the experience; w it, how you behave – and if you choose to change.  As students and members of the public l Charles University’s Faculty of Arts, this is the haunting final thought that stayed with one of them. Photo [ URL "http://www.ff.cuni.cz/2016/04/projekce-oscaroveho-snimku-sauluv-syn-beseda-se clarou-royer/"] Anna Kindness is a 3rd year English and Film student from Edinburgh, Scotland, who is stud culture, adventure, travel, the great outdoors and writing. The decision to write for iFor work environment, whilst simultaneously getting to meet like-minded people.