Friday Foreign Film, Aug. 11

The “Friday Foreign Film” series at Coos Bay Public Library continues at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, August 11th.  The highly acclaimed 2015 Hungarian film Son of Saul is this month’s feature. Winner of the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar and Golden Globe, Son of Saul is Hungarian director László Nemes’ stunning debut feature, a fearless and uncompromising tale of the Holocaust. October 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau.  Saul Ausländer is a Hungarian member of the 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 body of a boy he takes for his son.  As the Sonderkommando plan a rebellion, Saul vows to carry out an impossible task: to save the child’s body from the flames and to find a rabbi to recite the mourner’s Kaddish and offer the boy a proper burial. Newcomer Géza Röhrig offers a riveting, unflinching performance filled with grace and pathos.  A sensitive and intelligent portrait of individual action amidst the crushed souls of Auschwitz, László Nemes’ Son Of Saul remains nevertheless a profound testament of faith. The “Friday Foreign Film” series, sponsored by the Friends of Coos Bay Public Library, is normally held on the second Friday of the month and is free to the public.  Many of these films are not rated and parental discretion is advised. For more information call 269-1101.