Parents' Guide to

Son of Saul

By Renee Longstreet, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

Powerful WWII concentration camp film is horrific, violent.

Movie R 2015 107 minutes
Son of Saul Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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age 16+

Based on 4 parent reviews

doctora
doctora Parent of 6-year-old
April 12, 2023
age 18+

How far will we go to grieve with our full humanity?

A film that attempts to grapple with death and grief under horrible circumstances and how do we STILL fight for our humanity in these bleak and dire scenarios. But it is in keeping with our strong sense of survival that we feel compelled to fight tooth and nail over under the most egregious circumstances for a semblance of our humanity. A tough film to watch but a serious film that displays the complexity of the human spirit under the harshest shadows.
OliviaReviewsIt
OliviaReviewsIt Adult
June 12, 2021
age 18+

Hungarian Auschwitz Film Shows Inmates' Horrors as well as Resilience

Saul is a Jewish prisoner of the Auschwitz concentration camp and a Sonderkommando, who finds the body of a boy whom he claims is his son. He spends the duration of the film trying to find a rabbi in the camp to help him bury the boy. The other prisoners find his way of thinking to be irrational, saying there's no way such a thing could possibly be done. Saul's character seems to have become so numb with all of the terrible things he is forced to do that he no longer even thinks clearly. Some of the prisoners do try to stage a breakout knowing that if they don't try something they're all going to perish. This movie is one of the most horrific films I have ever seen because the kind of atrocities committed here actually happened in real life. This movie is very educational to show how things were at the death camps. There is a lot of death in this movie (execution scenes, gas chambers, crematories). Non-sexual nudity. Not for children and even adults will be disturbed by it. We should be. Never forget. 5/5.

This title has:

Too much violence
See all 4 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Saul Auslander (Geza Rohrig) is a Sonderkommando in the Auschwitz death camp in October 1944 in SON OF SAUL. Sonderkommandos, Jewish prisoners forced to perform grisly and mind-numbing tasks, knew that they, too, would be executed in short order. Saul's duties are to assist in removing bodies from the gas chambers, search for valuables among the victims' clothes and possessions, and clean up the anteroom before the next terrified Jews arrive for mass slaughter. His mind and spirit already broken, Saul finds a still-breathing boy among the fallen. Though the child dies soon afterward, Saul decides that he must, above all else, provide this one innocent with a traditional Jewish blessing and burial. Driven by renewed energy and purpose, Saul risks his life over and over again to find a rabbi and lay the boy whom he proclaims his "son" to rest. At the same time, some of Saul's closest inmate brethren are planning an escape. Saul's obsession compromises their efforts. The two events collide amid heartbreaking chaos, danger, and merciless acts of cruelty.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (4):
Kids say (2):

The full devastation of genocide, incomparable acts of cruelty, and humanity's ability to adapt to horror play out in the face of one man in this stunning, remarkable film. Other films have captured the Holocaust's atrocities and magnitude of heartlessness, but Son of Saul brings the more private moments of ravaged minds and souls to bear. The brilliance of Lazlo Nemes and his team comes from keeping Saul -- his face, his body, his point of view -- at the center of all (Rohrig's performance is shockingly real). While around him naked bodies are being dragged from the gas chamber to the ovens, while on the fringes of the frame his fellow prisoners go through the countless shoes, clothes, and personal effects of the victims, Nemes' camera is on Saul. And Saul is a study in the art of living while already dead. Some of the most savage acts happen mostly off camera or on the fringes of the shots, including the lengthy sequence of mass killing that takes place at the "pits" when the gas chambers are too crowded, which may be one of the most disturbing events in all cinema. This multiple award-winning film is hard to watch, and even harder to forget. Not for kids.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about how director Lazla Nemes portrayed the horrors of Auschwitz while showing little direct violence in Son of Saul. How did he and his team use techniques such as sound effects, soft focus, and close-up reactions of Saul to recreate what would have been unfilmable and too graphic for audiences? Do you think the movie succeeded in evoking the grim reality of the camp?

  • Whether or not the dead boy was Saul's son was a question the movie raised. Did the identity of the boy matter? Why, or why not? What did he symbolize for Saul?

  • Think about both the relative absence of dialogue and color in this film. What did the filmmakers use instead of words to convey story and emotion? How did the colors used contribute to the overall character of the movie?

  • How do the characters in Son of Saul demonstrate courage, perseverance, and teamwork? Why are these important character strength?

Movie Details

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