Son of Saul

Son of Saul
Hungarian theatrical release poster
Directed byLászló Nemes
Written by
Produced by
  • Gábor Sipos
  • Gábor Rajna
Starring
CinematographyMátyás Erdély
Edited byMatthieu Taponier
Music byLászló Melis
Production
company
Laokoon Filmgroup
Distributed byMozinet
Release dates
  • 15 May 2015 (2015-05-15) (Cannes)
  • 11 June 2015 (2015-06-11) (Hungary)
Running time
107 minutes
CountryHungary
LanguagesGerman
Hungarian
Polish
Yiddish
Russian
Slovak
Czech
Greek
Budget€1.5 million
Box office$9.7 million

Son of Saul (Hungarian: Saul fia) is a 2015 Hungarian historical drama film directed by László Nemes, in his feature directorial debut, and co-written by Nemes and Clara Royer. It is set in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II, and follows a day-and-a-half in the life of Saul Ausländer (played by Géza Röhrig), a Hungarian member of the Sonderkommando.

The film premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix, and was later screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. The film won the award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards. It is the ninth Hungarian film to be nominated for the award, and the first since István Szabó's Hanussen in 1988. It is the second Hungarian film to win the award, the first being Szabó's Mephisto in 1981. It also won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, becoming the first Hungarian film to win the award.