Film Review
Son of Saul
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12967220 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Carla Rose Shapiro (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 151-158 |
| Publication date | 2016-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Genocide Studies and Prevention (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1911-0359 • E-ISSN: 1911-9933 |
| Publisher | International Association of Genocide Scholars (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.5038/1911-9933.10.2.1437 |
| OpenAlex | W2540134039 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 5 |
Auschwitz presents "a multiplicity of realities, a multiplicity of meanings, perspectives and approaches that co-exist simultaneously." 1 Son of Saul is director Lszl Nemes' cinematic interpretation of one specific perspective of Auschwitz as envisaged by the film's protagonist, Saul Auslnder, a prisoner of the camp, who, as a member of the Sonderkommando, was assigned a particularly onerous task-working in the gas chambers and crematoria of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Son of Saul should have provoked debate about the enactment of those events, and the placement of a camera at the threshold of that sacral, albeit mimetic space. If, according to Theodor Adorno, writing poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric, 2 what about creative endeavours seventy years after Auschwitz? With the passage of time between the realities of Auschwitz and their contemporary re-creation, the boundaries of the limits of representation have become increasingly indistinct. The near universal praise from film critics, and numerous prestigious awards bestowed upon Son of Saul (such as the Grand Prix at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film), suggest an almost unquestioned acceptance of the film's leitmotif, which is no longer considered artistically transgressive in this visually permissive YouTube era. The film's acclaim, coupled with affirmative nods from French philosopher Georges Didi-Huberman 3 and filmmaker Claude Lanzmann 4 (who has long rejected fictional cinematic representations of the Holocaust) seem to support Son of Saul as both a tour de force and the realization of an effective representational strategy within the challenging genre of Holocaust cinema. Son of Saul is a demanding film that is difficult to watch; it takes the audience on a journey where few artistic endeavours have gone before. By setting the film in the gas chambers and crematoria of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and by expressing that he "wanted to show people how the situation really was" 5 , Nemes sets the moral and representational stakes high; a critique of the film must therefore be considered accordingly
Art · Genocide · Psychoanalysis · Theology · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Philosophy · Psychology · Race, History, and American Society
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,14 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2019 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |