Auschwitz drama shows humanity amidst the savagery

László Nemes tells Helen Barlow how his Oscar-winning Auschwitz drama, Son of Saul, is still relevant for today’s world

IF ever there was a film to shake up the Cannes Festival, then Son of Saul did that last year. We’ve all seen Holocaust dramas, though never one quite like this. Hungarian first-time film-maker László Nemes took out the festival’s Grand Prix and Critics’ prizes and went on to win the Oscar and Golden Globe for foreign film.

At the Oscars, Nemes thanked Hungary for financing the €1.5m production, which won the country its first foreign-language award since the fall of communism. France, Austria, Germany, and Israel had turned it down.