Communist Hungary in the late 1950s. Conceived during the war and brought up by his mother, Andor (Bojtorján Barabas) is convinced his father will return one day. Instead, another man emerges to stake his claim to both mother and child. Berend (Grégory Gadebois) is a butcher and a gentile, and even worse, a divorcee. Appalled, Andor is determined to save his mother from this brute.
The latest film from Son of Saul director László Nemes reminds us that geat cinema is about the aesthetics of light, composition and camera movement. He builds Andor’s world from the inside out, through the child’s troubled eyes. But this acutely personal vision also grants us access to the wider history unfolding on the edge of the frame, which Andor barely comprehends: the fall out from the Holocaust, the crushing grip of the Communist state. Vivid, textured, and richly imagined, this exceptional film will stick with you.
Oscar Submission: Hungary
Bojtorján Barabas, Andrea Waskovics, Grégory Gadebois, Sándor Soma
Hungary/France/Germany/UK
2025
In Hungarian with English subtitles
At International Village
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Yoav Rosenberg, Michael Kupsik, Klaudia Smieja-Rostworowska, Sipos Gábor, Rajna Gábor, Stalter Judit, J.D. Zacharias, Ori Eisen, Alice Labadie, Jean Labadie
Producer
Ildikó Kemény, Mike Goodridge, Alexander Rodnyansky, Szále Ferenc, Gregory Jankilevitsch, Alexander Bazarov, Juliette Schrameck, Thanassis Karathanos, Martin Hampel
Screenwriter
László Nemes, Clara Royer
Cinematography
Mátyás Erdély
Editor
Péter Politzer
Production Design
Márton Ágh
Original Music
Evgueni Galperine, Sacha Galperine
László Nemes
Filmography: Son of Saul (2015); Sunset (2018)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other
This intimate and candid film by a younger husband and wife artist team is a delicate and immensely moving dual portrait of two artists, husband and wife, together and apart, at that point in life when the end casts a shadow over even the sunniest day.
Image: © Manon et Jacob and Final Cut For Real
Blue Road - The Edna O'Brien Story
Judging by this candid, funny, passionate biographical documentary, it would have been a wild ride to have been Irish novelist Edna O'Brien, or even to have been in her circle of friends and lovers. Well, for an hour and a half we can pretend we were.
Erupcja
Charli xcx headlines this indie gem about a young English couple coming unmoored over a few days in Warsaw. Will means to propose. Beth has cold feet -- and an escape hatch she has barely admitted to herself... Think Before Sunrise 2025.
Tony Wilson's The Homeless Project
Combining music, text, still photography, and film to shine a sympathetic light on Canada's urban dispossessed, The Homeless Project is the third in composer, guitarist Tony Wilson's series of multimedia projects addressing pressing social issues.