Virginia Film Festival

Saul Ausländer is a Hungarian member of Auschwitz-Birkenau’s Sonderkommando, the group of Jewish prisoners isolated from the camp and forced to assist the Nazis in the machinery of large-scale extermination. While working in one of the crematoriums, Saul discovers the corpse of a boy he believes to be his son. As the Sonderkommando plans a rebellion, Saul decides to carry out an impossible task: save the child’s body from the flames, find a rabbi to recite the Mourner’s Kaddish, and offer the boy a proper burial. Director László Nemes’s debut feature film redefines the World War II genre, and won the coveted Grand Prix at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. This film will be presented from a director-approved 35mm print. Introduction by Asher Biemann (U.Va.)

Supported by Charlottesville Albemarle Airport and Congregation Beth Israel