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
Late Fame
Based on a novella by Arthur Schnitzler (Eyes Wide Shut) this is a sly, poignant comedy about vanity and art from director Kent Jones, starring Willem Dafoe as a mailman belatedly acclaimed for a book of poetry he wrote in his youth.
Memory of Princess Mumbi
In 2093, a filmmaker arrives in the African village of Umata, where he meets Princess Mumbi, a woman torn between love, legacy, and the future of storytelling. It's a fabulous genre-blending fable about memory, invention and cinematic resistance.
Lessons of Darkness
Werner Herzog's unforgettable documentary reveals the unfolding disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames in 1991 as a sweeping inferno of mesmerizing power.
Beau Travail
Inspired by Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Claire Denis' transfixing Beau Travail is set in East Africa. Sgt Galoup (Denis Lavant) reflects on his time in the French Foreign Legion, and the impact of the handsome Sentain (Gregoire Colin).
But I'm a Cheerleader
Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is the perfect All-American Girl, or so she thinks. That is until she’s shipped off to conversion therapy. This pitch black comedy is wrapped in a saccharine bow, featuring the icon herself, RuPaul, as a conversion counsellor.