Adorno once warned the world: "After Auschwitz, writing poetry is barbaric." When it comes to Auschwitz, anyone who has some knowledge of that period of history will shudder, and the breath of death and fear pervades and lingers. Don't go. In fact, Auschwitz is everywhere, and how to face the sensitive subject of Auschwitz has become a common topic faced by the world. In terms of movies alone, there are "Schindler's List" that exudes a faint light in the dark, and "Life is Beautiful" that tells the story of laughter and tears, and such classic movies bring us different visual feelings and hearts. . The debut film "Son of Sol" directed by Hungarian director Laszlo Gerais takes a unique approach. It does not praise heroes or give hope, but leads the audience from the perspective of "prisoners" with an absolutely single subject setting. Walking into the scene of the Auschwitz concentration camp, it shows how a person who lives from death seeks spiritual redemption in the face of death and despair. The story of Son of Thor is simple: in Auschwitz, a "prisoner contingent" named Thor, at any cost, tried to bury a man he thought was "a man in a form appointed by God," at any cost. The story of the boy's son". The so-called "specialists" were actually Jews selected by the Nazi army to serve them. Their daily task was to take prisoners to the gas chambers, strip them of their clothes, execute them, and collect and haul the bodies of the prisoners after they died. And burned, and finally responsible for cleaning up the blood-stained execution room. The director adopts the method of close-up tracking shooting, creating a hell-like environment in a concentration camp, showing the struggle of innocent individuals. The film was praised by many film critics and won the Grand Jury Prize at the 68th Cannes Film Festival and the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards. Why has "Son of Sol" won so many heavyweight international awards? The judges at Cannes had this to say: "The film strives to present the contrast between the death ceremony and the death factory, the ritual and the machine, the prayer and the noise. When there is no hope, in this hell At the bottom, the voice in Thor's heart told him: You must live to complete this act of meaning to you, this is a human, long-lasting, sacred meaning. This act is in all The starting point of human beings and all religions is to worship the dead." Indeed, Sol regarded "worshiping the dead" as a belief to live, and even became an obsession. understand. But we don't have the right to condemn him, because that was Thor's spiritual support in an extreme situation, and it was his last struggle before facing death. The Italian philosopher Agamben put forward the concept of the so-called "sacrificial person", which means "a person who has been deprived of all rights and only has a pure physical existence like an animal." As a member of the "special team" of the Nazi concentration camp, Saul is such a "sacrificial man", his daily job is to be forced to clean the bodies of the victims in the gas chambers. In a sense, Saul became an "accomplice" of the Nazis and worked together to complete the horrific massacre. He was just trying to survive, and he had already become insensitive. Of course, Sol is soberly aware that he will also be killed by the Nazis in the end, because he is also a "prisoner", and the red cross on his back has already prompted this, and he has already been sentenced by death. But as a film critic said, "Even if the cruel reality dulls Saul's senses, a little desire for moral redemption in his heart fulfills all his motives for his actions that are meaningless to outsiders." That is in the absence of God Time to listen to the prayer of a rabbi (Jewish priest). In such a harsh living environment, "Son of Sol" became Sol's inner pillar and appeal. It seems more important to bury a victim in God's appointed form than to live like a walking dead. He hopes to use this method to seek redemption, even if the chances are slim. The appearance of the little boy is the beginning of Thor's transformation. Although we will doubt whether it is his son or not, it is not important anymore. The important thing is that Thor has found the motivation to "awaken his humanity". The reason why Sol stubbornly sought out a Jewish rabbi to hold a funeral for the little boy was because Sol believed that God had not completely abandoned human beings, and he was extremely eager to return to a normal life and a civilized society. A stealthy act of resistance. Unfortunately, Thor did not achieve final redemption, and everything ended tragically. What Thor finally found after going through hardships and dangers was just a fake rabbi who even mispronounced his prayers, a compatriot who deceived his compatriots in order to survive. The little boy's body was also swept away by the river during Sol's escape, and Sol himself died. In a dark and lightless world, there is nothing but despair. "In the face of Auschwitz, one always begins with utter despair and extreme fear, followed by a repressive silence. Any celebration of victory, curse of the loser, or about the sufferer Exhaustive records, no matter how flamboyant, passionate, or sincere rhetoric, cannot eliminate that despair and fear.” Also as the Italian writer and Auschwitz survivor Levi said: “I am alive, The price may be the death of another person; by living, I have taken the place of another person; by living, I have usurped another person's right to live, in other words, killed another person." Understand the meaning of the sentence "After Auschwitz, writing poetry is barbaric". No words or images can reshape the slaughterhouse where the crimes are monstrous and dehumanizing, and millions of fresh lives were massacred by massacres. What an inhumane beast! Going back to Son of Saul, the film is death from start to finish, leaving no respite for the audience. It is through the bloody memories of small individuals that the director awakens the fear in the hearts of us survivors and makes us realize what is the real sin and despair. "Son of Saul" is based on a memoir "Voices from the Ashes", a memoir of a contingent of Auschwitz prisoners, which vividly describes the world inside the concentration camp: eating, sleeping, leading Jews into gas chambers, carrying and cremating Corpses, disposal of ashes, mass graves, these are all shown in the film. In that slaughter factory, death was the norm, and living was the exception. Yes, the essence of Auschwitz is death, there is no hope in Auschwitz, and trying to find hope in Auschwitz is just wishful thinking or even a shameful business behavior. Someone said: "Compared with hundreds of thousands of corpses, Schindler's list is not enough to save or even cast any light on the deepest darkness of human nature." And "Son of Saul" is a film that makes despair swallow everything , so Saul would say to his companions: "We are already dead." When the blond boy who appears to be native to Poland at the end of the film appears in Saul's gaze (Auschwitz was located in Poland), Saul's face A smile appeared, and he seemed to have seen a miracle from the blond boy, it was the hope of life. Compared to the boy who was killed in the concentration camp before, this blond boy was lucky and blessed by God. But the director's point of view is always full of pessimism and despair. When the camera's focus is removed from Thor for the first time, we follow the actions of the blond boy to gain insight into the true ending of the story: the son of Thor is just an imaginary existence. As the gunshots rang out, Sol and his companions were slaughtered, and the breath of death spread in the oppressive atmosphere. The director seems to want to use this to tell the audience: In Auschwitz, no one can be saved, only brutal killings, and the smell of blood and fear everywhere. Such cruelty and terror have completely broken through the moral bottom line of human beings. Perhaps this is the truth of Auschwitz. Son of Saul has its own unique theological appeal while accusing the Nazi totalitarian rule. This demand is vividly expressed in Sol's behavior, namely: in the absence of God, in the place where barbarism is rampant, how can individuals who live like ants reconstruct their relationship with God? Thor tries to get close to God by "burying his son in a God-ordained way." For Thor, the funeral was crucial, about his entire belief in God and the redemption of his soul. When we watch the film, we may be bound by conventional thinking, thinking that it is business for Sol to revolt with his comrades, but Sol is not interested in this, and only thinks about the danger of burying his son even if it kills his comrades. But if we think about it, in that extreme situation, Thor's behavior is understandable, because death can come at any time. The idea that the companions want to survive is just self-deception, and they will even meet the god of death in advance because of this. Rather than doing so, it is better to do something that also reflects its own value. In fact, don't all Nazi concentration camp victims need a decent funeral? But they were massacred, and the bodies were disposed of carelessly. In Sol's view, the act of "burying a child" is the last and only way to distinguish himself from animals, so he attaches great importance to rituals, even to the point of paranoia, because only humans will be buried with specific rituals deceased. Sol no longer cares about how to survive, he only cares about the redemption of death. In "Son of Sol", the director spared no effort to restore the historical scene of Auschwitz, in order to awaken the fear in the audience, so that the audience can clearly realize the brutality, horror and blood of Auschwitz, and thus Reflect more deeply on why there is such a dehumanizing existence in Auschwitz. Thor's despair is actually the despair of each of us. After Auschwitz, human beings have not stopped doing evil on a large scale, and Auschwitz is still haunted. How to prevent the massacre from repeating itself, and how to avoid the resurrection of Auschwitz, perhaps this is the greatest significance of this film, and it is also the biggest problem the director has left to the world. In "Son of Sol", the director spared no effort to restore the historical scene of Auschwitz, in order to awaken the fear in the audience, so that the audience can clearly realize the brutality, horror and blood of Auschwitz, and thus Reflect more deeply on why there is such a dehumanizing existence in Auschwitz. Thor's despair is actually the despair of each of us. After Auschwitz, human beings have not stopped doing evil on a large scale, and Auschwitz is still haunted. How to prevent the massacre from repeating itself, and how to avoid the resurrection of Auschwitz, perhaps this is the greatest significance of this film, and it is also the biggest problem the director has left to the world. In "Son of Sol", the director spared no effort to restore the historical scene of Auschwitz, in order to awaken the fear in the audience, so that the audience can clearly realize the brutality, horror and blood of Auschwitz, and thus Reflect more deeply on why there is such a dehumanizing existence in Auschwitz. Thor's despair is actually the despair of each of us. After Auschwitz, human beings have not stopped doing evil on a large scale, and Auschwitz is still haunted. How to prevent the massacre from repeating itself, and how to avoid the resurrection of Auschwitz, perhaps this is the greatest significance of this film, and it is also the biggest problem the director has left to the world.
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