1. Title of the film and year of release

Movie: Son of Saul

Year of release: 2016

Son of Saul is a film about Saul Ausländer, a Hungarian, who is kept as a prisoner in a group known as Sonderkommando. The Sonderkommando is a secluded prisoner section which is highly involved in the heinous actions of the Nazi’s who were mass executing people. Saul’s role is to collect valuable items from the dead bodies as well as dragging dead bodies from the gas chambers and cleaning the chambers before the next set of dead bodies arrive. Saul finds the body of a dead boy whom he believes might be his son. In his Jewish tradition, before the burial of a child, a rabbi must facilitate the prayer arrangements after which funeral provisions begin.   His search for a rabbi becomes a wild goose chase as his only solution tells him to undertake the ritual by himself. Saul eavesdrops conservation about a planned revolution against the Nazi soldiers and offers to participate in the uprising. Saul also has another responsibility for hiding the body of the dead boy away from the chambers.

2. People, places, events, or aspect of people and the significance of each

The main character in the film is Saul Ausländer. He is a Jew who works in the Nazi based prison camps and has the role of collecting valuable items from dead people and also putting the dead bodies in the gas chambers. The character of Saul indicates the effects of the Holocaust and discrimination of the Jewish people under the Nazi administration.

Biedermann is a Sonderkommando prisoner who is undertaking the challenge to revolt against the German soldiers. He indicates a person who rises against impunity in any society.

Abraham is another Sonderkommando prisoner who is planning a revolution against the Nazi soldiers. He also portrays a person tired with oppression and a need for change against violation of human rights.

Katz is a prisoner who works together with Saul to take the photos on the actual happenings on the ground. Katz displays a person willing to change society and bring sanity in the administration.

The movie is based on the period through which the Nazi Germans executed the Jews in a commonly known Jewish Holocaust. Under the rule of the Nazis, Jews were killed, tortured and lived in unfavorable living conditions.

3. Facts in the movie

The movie depicts the effects of the Holocaust under the rule of the Nazi Germans. Jews were killed and tortured under the harsh regime of the Nazis. Its relevance describes the actual events that happened in the early 20^th century.

Another fact in the movie is the appreciation of traditions. Saul acknowledges that a rabbi must always pray before the dead person is buried. This demonstrates that under dire circumstances, people should still embrace and live by their rules.

A third fact in the movie is a demonstration against an oppressive regime. Saul together with other Sonderkommando prisons take the boldest steps to raise awareness of the happenings of the Holocaust by taking pictures of the events happening in the camps under the Nazis

4. Themes from the film

A clear theme in the movie is a dictatorship administration. The Nazis use supremacy against the Jews to a point where they mass executed nearly six million Jews in the Holocaust.

Racism is also a theme depicting how the Nazis racially abused the Jews by calling them names and imitating some of their dance moves. Due to their superiority, the Nazis believed that they were more advanced than the Jews and even took it to kill them for their amusement. Some of the ‘lucky’ Jews took jobs that undermined their social rankings.