Son of Saul (Hungarian: Saul fia) is a 2015 Hungarian drama horror-thriller film directed by László Nemes and co-written by Nemes and Clara Royer.

In October 1944, Saul Ausländer (Géza Röhrig), a Hungarian-Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz works as a Sonderkommando member, burning the dead. One day, he finds the body of a boy he takes for his son. He tries to salvage the body from the flames, and find a rabbi to arrange a clandestine burial. Meanwhile other members of the Sonderkommando learn about their impending extermination, rise up and destroy the crematorium. Saul keeps focused on his own plan to pay the last honours to a son he never could take care of before.

• Géza Röhrig as Saul
• Levente Molnár as Abraham
• Urs Rechn as Biedermann
• Sándor Zsótér as Doctor
• Todd Charmont as Braun
• Uwe Lauer as Voss
• Christian Harting as Busch
• Kamil Dobrowolski as Mietek

Son of Saul premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival,^[3][4] where it won the Grand Prix.^[5] It has also been selected to be shown in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.^[6]

Upon its release at Cannes, the film was met with critical acclaim.^[7] In his review for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw rated the film five out of five stars, calling it an "astonishing debut film" and "a horror movie of extraordinary focus and courage". He ended his review writing: "Nemes's film has found a way to create a fictional drama with a gaunt, fierce kind of courage – the kind of courage, perhaps, that it takes to watch it."^[8] Writing for Time Out, Dave Calhoun also gave the film five out of five stars.^[9] Indiewire's Eric Kohn awarded the film an A- rating, calling it "a remarkable refashioning of the Holocaust drama that reignites the setting with extraordinary immediacy".^[10] In his review written for The Hollywood Reporter, Boyd van Hoeij praised the cinematography and the soundwork of the film. He writes: "Shot (and shown in Cannes) on 35mm, often in sickly greens and yellows and with deep shadows, Erdely’s cinematography is one of the film’s major assets, but it wouldn’t be half as effective without the soundwork, which plays a major role in suggesting what is happening around Saul, with audiences often forced to rely on the sound to imagine the whole, horrible picture." ^[11] Writing for The Film Stage, Giovanni Marchini Camia gave the film an A rating, and called it "a towering landmark for filmic fictionalizations of the Holocaust".^[12]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 92% approval rating based on reviews from 39 critics, with an average rating of 8.6 out of 10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Grimly intense yet thoroughly rewarding, Son of Saul offers an unforgettable viewing experience – and establishes director László Nemes as a talent to watch."^[13] On Metacritic, the film has received a weighted average score of 91 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[14]

Claude Lanzmann, director of the documentary Shoah, lauded Nemes after seeing the film.^[15]

At the Cannes Film Festival the film won the Grand Prix and the FIPRESCI Prize in the main competition section.^[16][17] The film also won the François Chalais Prize and the Vulcan Award.^[18][19][20] In June 2015, it was announced Son of Saul would be Hungary's submission for the 2016 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.^[21]

• List of submissions to the 88th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Hungarian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

• Son of Saul at IMDb
• Son of Saul at Box Office Mojo
• Son of Saul at Rotten Tomatoes
• Please use a more specific Metacritic template.