There is a Hungarian participant in one of the world's most important film festivals, Cannes almost every year, and this year is no different either. In 2015 László Nemes Jeles’ first feature film is among the best works competing for Palme d'Or, and we have to say, well deserved. The ’Son of Saul’ is a Holocaust film, but it goes against the ordinary imagery of such films. As the director, said: "I did not want to make a classic historical drama. Not sought for totality, I were only looking for one person’s point of view instead."

The film is about the Hungarian Saul Auslander, who discovers his own son in a corpse of a boy during his work as a member of the Sonderkommando, in Auschwitz. From then on he has only one purpose: to provide the final respects to his son. (The members of the Sonderkommando were those who were forced to burn the carcasses of people killed in gas chambers and scatter the ashes. They themselves have lived in isolation in the crematoria, and after a few months of work have been liquidated.)

The creator of the film (and also the multiple–awarded ‘With a Little Patience’) found a book in France which introduced Sonderkommando’s coils. Those writings that the members of Sonderkommando had written despite the ban, and buried them. The posterity learned the thoughts, tasks and notes of the prisoners commanded to the death camp’s crematorium from these later found documents, and it was also the inspiration for the Son of Saul.

Hard topic, but we cheers for the film and the director on 13-24 May.