The cinematography by Mátyás Erdély, who worked in similar close up but to very different effect in James White ( James White uses meticulous performances and precise camerawork to make damaged person sympathetic and real - a film review), creates an incredibly subjective experience. It’s a crafty shot that reveals the film’s shallow focus and how nothing will appear as clearly as it might seem, as the film stays sharply focused on the man whose face you now clearly see. It is the jittery Saul, remarkably portrayed by non-actor and poet Röhrig.
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A blurry figure approaches the center of the screen until his ragged, pale face with a cracked lip comes into focus, the mystery of everything else around him still blurred out. There appears to be two young people (possibly children) crouched by a tree apparently digging in the dirt. The viewer is confronted with a blurry shot of a lush wooded area in a tight, boxy 1.33:1 aspect ratio. After the film’s stark opening title card explains the role of the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz, the audience will notice the idyllic chirping of birds. The film’s opening shot is a stunning moment of establishing thesis and aesthetic. He is at the end of his tenure as a prisoner tasked with corralling fellow Jews into mass gas chambers and disposing of the evidence as quickly as possible before he and other members of the Sonderkommando guide the next batch of frightened prisoners with promises of “After the shower, you will have some tea.” The film follows Saul Ausländer ( Géza Röhrig) over the course of two days at the Nazi death camp. Son of Saul, the feature debut by Hungarian director László Nemes has an audacious premise: placing the viewer in the shoes of a member of the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz-Birkenau.