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The film -- the tale of a Jewish "Sonderkommando" death camp
worker who finds a corpse he believes is his son's and sets his
mind to burying him amid the horrors -- won the jury's Grand
Prix at the Cannes Film Festival this month.
It will be released in at least 48 countries this year, its
producers said.
Director and screenwriter Laszlo Nemes told reporters that his
first feature film was partly a testament to hundreds of
thousands of Hungarian Jews killed during World War Two after
Hungarians cooperated with the Nazis in their deportation.
He quoted a text message from the film's historical consultant,
Zoltan Vagi, who wrote that Hungary had a lot to atone for.
The message said Hungary set a European record by sending
430,000 Jews to Birkenau within eight weeks in 1944, among them
more than 100,000 children.
"This film is about Saul's drive to give one Hungarian child of
the 100,000 a proper, honest burial," he said.
Surveys show Hungarian anti-Semitism at a persistently high
level and the far-right Jobbik party, which has capitalized on
that sentiment, is the main challenger of the ruling
center-right Fidesz party.
The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban has declared a
zero-tolerance policy against anti-Semitism but has displayed
signs of xenophobia and radicalization itself.
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Geza Rohrig, an amateur actor who gives a mesmerizing performance as
Saul, said Hungarians were growing immune to the suffering of people
they see as different, be they Jews or Roma gypsies.
"I want as many people as possible to watch this film as I believe
Hungarians, for some time now, have ignored the pain of certain
other people," Rohrig said.
The filmmakers rejected criticism that they depicted the
Sonderkommando in an overly understanding way, saying they worked
painstakingly to remain faithful to facts. Some accounts see the
Sonderkommando forced laborers as accomplices, while others say they
had a choice between working or certain death.
Asked about Jobbik, whose vice chairman said films about the
Holocaust were not worthy of receiving public funds, which helped
finance Nemes's movie, the filmmakers were reluctant to discuss
current affairs.
"We made the movie," producer Gabor Simon said. "What kind of waves
it makes at home...we agree on what effect the waves should have,
but we would rather stay out of direct politics.
"Let's see how the waves splash, which it seems they do."
(Reporting by Marton Dunai; Editing by Michael Roddy and Angus
MacSwan)
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