SON OF SAUL

Described as "ultra-immersive" by one film critic, director Laszlo Nemes’s 2015 depiction of the Holocaust has been compared, in its impact on the viewer, to Spielberg’s evocation of the horrors of the Normandy landing as depicted in Saving Private Ryan. "You don’t merely witness horror, you feel it in your bones," explains Rolling Stone. The camera focuses closely on Saul, a Jewish Sonderkommando helping the Nazis run the gas chambers, as he risks his life to accomplish a single decent act—while the everyday extreme horrors of the camp happen unnoticed by him in the screen’s background, at its edges, and offscreen but registered in the soundtrack. Awards: Oscar, Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice, Independent Spirit, New York Film Critics Circle, and many more. Warning: rated R for violence and nudity.