The genre of “the Holocaust drama” has a bit of a troubling history. In fact, that it is a genre at all is quite troubling. The Holocaust has, understandably, taken on a certain mythic function in Western culture. It has become the tragedy, the height of human evil, and the perverse pinnacle of humanity’s progress towards self-destruction. It’s easy to then understand why it is explored through movies so often; it’s the perfect narrative device to explore the deepest depths of human suffering and trauma. However, the Holocaust is not a narrative device, it’s a human event in human history. Such irresponsible treatment of the event (not even mentioning the seedier practice of using it as award bait) is deeply damaging to our cultural understanding of it. The Holocaust is being replaced (has already been replaced?) in many of our minds with cinematic images of the Holocaust. We think of red coat clad little girls, and boys in striped pajamas.
Where the film succeeds is in its pursuit of an individual’s story. Son of Saul is not a grandiose statement about the Holocaust. It doesn’t try to give us the cinematic representation of the Holocaust, so we can watch it and feel like we’ve dealt with it. Schindler’s List already tried this, and failed. Instead, Son of Saul follows one man, and one man’s story, as he deals with the unfathomable inhumanity surrounding him.
Overall, Son of Saul is a powerful and demanding viewing experience, but not in ways that feel exploitative or irresponsible. Instead, the film promotes deeper thought not only into the very real human presence of an event that we might otherwise divorce from its actual victims. It also promotes deeper thought into how we depict traumatic events on the screen, and how we can do so responsibly.
Click here to see if Son of Saul is playing in a theater near you. Check out the trailer for the film below: