The film starts from a virtual focus, and Sol, who slowly walks from a distance, does not gradually become clear until the camera. From then on, the lens always closes up and photographs Sol’s face or the back of his head, and other things are absolutely most of the time. Is vague. This gives a strong hint that the focus of this film is not the overall situation, not history, but the person Sol, we want to follow him to experience everything that happened in Auschwitz.
Saul is a relatively strong Jew in the concentration camp, so he was able to do coolies and temporarily save himself from death. His working place is a gas chamber. Without any soundtrack, just by following the long shots of him, we and Sol kept running in the extermination camp together, and experienced what the extermination camp was like. The narrow frame deliberately adopted throughout the film also exacerbated the sense of claustrophobia and oppression. Use work, bread, coffee to lure the crowd, and pretend to remind you to remember the number of the items you store, and after closing the iron door, the screaming and messy cry that occurred in an instant is not the scream in the ghost film, it is the real The painful and terrifying group died; when the cries disappeared, corpses and plasma were everywhere, and the flesh was piled up like a mountain, Thor struggled to scrub the blood, dragging the corpse against the floor, and the harsh sound; the incinerator was full of ashes and shot directly instead. In the mass graves, in that patch of flames, vague nudes, and the endless cry of the crowd being forced to flock to the mass graves. Although the previous Nazi concentration camp movies have brutal pictures, there is always an orderly coldness. And this movie, although the picture is out of focus, but it reflects the horror and evil that cannot be expressed in any language or audiovisual. I have seen the most realistic hell on earth that I have seen in my life.
On the face of Sol, who is also a Jew and may face the same fate at any time, there is not much expression on his face. It may be dignified, or numb, and the blur in front of him is also the world in his eyes, or the world in his heart. And the things that the film occasionally focuses on are exactly what Sol cares about. What he cares about is not the tragedy of his compatriots, nor the progress of the secret resistance organization, but his "son".
Whether it is his son or not, the film does not clearly state, and it does not matter. In fact, the plot of the film is confusing, such as the details of the operation of the resistance organization, but in fact this also reflects the situation of Saul, or the situation that the immersive audience should have. The Auschwitz extermination camp was mixed with Jews from all over Europe. I noticed Sol’s Hungarian, resistance’s Yiddish, locals’ Polish, and the rabbi’s Greek in another concentration camp. Among the crying victims were French, the German of Nazi officers, and occasionally English communication. In terms of language alone, this is an extremely chaotic and confusing world, and Sol is only a member of the enslaved in this concentration camp. He is even less able to fully understand everything that happened around him. There is only an indescribable horror in front of him. Through the blurred vision and vague plot, this film gives the audience the same numbness or more indescribable feelings like Thor, which is a completely different experience from the usual "God perspective" movie audience.
More importantly, in such a terrifying and distorted hell on earth, human thinking and understanding cannot be assumed under normal conditions. Under such incredible conditions, Sol was extremely paranoid about burying his "son" and had to find a rabbi (Jewish priest) to perform the prayer ceremony. For this reason, he has gone through many dangers, regardless of the safety of his partners, abandoning the tasks assigned by the resistance organization, and even spared his life in exchange for a rabbi who will be executed. First of all, we have no right to condemn him. In that environment, not everyone has the obligation to resist or survive. Secondly, this incomprehensible paranoia may be understood as Sol’s spiritual sustenance. Imagine the environment he is in, the work he does, his dark destiny, and in such an extremely distorted psychological situation, even if he may not have a son, the so-called "son of Thor" is the last pillar and appeal of his heart. Where, maybe it is the last reliance of faith, where God is. Otherwise, why must he find a rabbi at all costs? Sadly, what he found through hardships was a false rabbi who had mispronounced his prayers, a compatriot who deceived him in order to survive. This scene also symbolizes that their god is dead in this dark and opaque world.
From the beginning to the end, this movie is a boundless purgatory, without any chance of respite. The Polish boy at the end of the film (he was not captured by the Nazis and is not a Jew) is even less likely to have anything to do with Sol, but when he saw Sol running freely, a smile appeared on his face for the first time, as if God finally appeared. A ray of light was torn apart in the darkness. The "son" or spiritual sustenance in his heart seems to have finally been redeemed, and may his soul rest in peace.
The style is the first, brings the most powerful impact, makes two wars, the lingering film, the best foreign language film of the Oscar, there is no suspense.
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