László Nemes: The Life Story Behind the Son of Saul Director

László Nemes is a Hungarian film director who made one of the most powerful films about the Holocaust ever made, Son of Saul, and won an Academy Award for it. His film is not like other Holocaust films. It does not show the horror from a distance. It stays close to one man, Saul Ausländer, and it shows the world through his eyes, in a way that is intense, painful and deeply human. Nemes was only in his thirties when he made it, and it made him famous around the world.

He was born in Budapest in 1977, and he grew up in a Hungary that was changing, from communism to democracy, and in a family that loved film and history. He studied in Budapest and in Paris, he worked as an assistant to the director Béla Tarr, and he learned to make films that are slow, careful, and focused on a single human face. His style is quiet, but his subject is one of the loudest and most terrible in history.

This is the story of a young director who took on the hardest subject in cinema, who found a new way to film it, and who made a film that is still talked about today. It is a story about courage, about memory, and about a man who believes that film can help us understand the past, even when the past is almost too painful to look at.

Born in Budapest and Raised with Film

László Nemes was born on 18 February 1977 in Budapest, Hungary, and he grew up in a city that was full of history, of film, and of change. His father, András Jeles, was a film director, and his mother was also part of the world of art and culture. Nemes grew up around films, around scripts, around cameras, and he learned early that cinema could be a serious art, not only entertainment.

As a child and a teenager, Nemes lived through the end of communism in Hungary and the transition to democracy in 1989 and the years that followed. He saw his country change, he saw old certainties fall away, and he saw new freedoms and new problems arrive. That experience of change, of a world turning upside down, stayed with him, and it later shaped his films, which are about people living in a world that is falling apart.

He was interested in history from a young age, especially in the history of the Second World War and the Holocaust, and he was also interested in how film could tell that history. He did not want to make a film that was only about facts. He wanted to make a film that was about a person, about what it feels like to live inside a terrible history, and about how a human being can keep a small piece of dignity when everything around him is designed to take it away.

Nemes studied film in Budapest and later in Paris, where he learned about French cinema, about world cinema, and about the craft of directing. He was a serious student, a thoughtful young man, and he was already thinking about the film that would become Son of Saul, even before he had made his first feature. He knew it would be hard, and he knew it would take years, but he was determined to try.

Learning from Béla Tarr

One of the most important steps in Nemes’s early career was working as an assistant to Béla Tarr, the great Hungarian director of Sátántangó and The Turin Horse. Nemes worked with Tarr on The Man from London, a film released in 2007, and he learned from Tarr how to make a film slowly, carefully, and with a focus on time, on images, and on the human face. Tarr’s style, with its long takes, its black-and-white photography, and its patience, had a deep influence on Nemes, and it is visible in Son of Saul.

Working with Tarr was not easy. Tarr is a demanding director, a perfectionist, and he expects his team to work hard and to care about every detail. Nemes learned that discipline, and he also learned that a director must have a clear vision and must not compromise it, even when the work is hard and the budget is small. That lesson stayed with him when he made his own films, and it helped him to keep his vision clear, even when others told him that his idea was too difficult or too risky.

Tarr also taught Nemes to think about sound, about silence, and about the way a camera can stay close to a character and let the audience feel what the character feels. In Son of Saul, the camera stays close to Saul’s face, to the back of his head, to his hands, and the audience sees the world as he sees it, blurred, chaotic, and terrifying. That style comes directly from the lessons Nemes learned from Tarr, and it is one of the reasons the film is so powerful.

Nemes has spoken with respect about Tarr, and about how much he learned from him, but he has also made his own films, in his own way. He did not copy Tarr. He took what he learned and used it to tell a different story, in a different way, with a different subject. That is the mark of a good student: to learn from a master, and then to find your own voice.

Short Films and the Long Road to Son of Saul

Before Son of Saul, Nemes made short films that showed his talent and his interest in history and in human faces. His short film With a Little Patience, made in 2007, and his other shorts, were shown at festivals, and they gave him a chance to practise his style, to work with actors, and to build a reputation as a young director to watch. He was not in a hurry. He knew that his first feature film would be a big, difficult project, and he wanted to be ready for it.

The idea for Son of Saul came from Nemes’s reading about the Sonderkommando, the prisoners in Auschwitz who were forced to work in the gas chambers and crematoria, and who were themselves killed after a few months. He was struck by the story of these men, who lived in the middle of horror, and who tried to keep a small piece of humanity, a small act of dignity, even when everything around them was designed to destroy them. He decided to tell the story of one such man, Saul Ausländer, a Hungarian Jew, who finds a boy’s body and tries to give him a proper burial.

Making the film was not easy. Nemes had to find funding, he had to find actors, he had to research the history carefully, and he had to convince people that his idea, a film that stays close to one man and does not show the horror in a wide, clear way, could work. Many people told him it was too risky, too difficult, too painful, but he kept going, and he spent years preparing, writing, and planning the film, until he was ready to shoot it.

The film was shot in Hungary, with a small budget, with a mostly Hungarian cast, and with the actor Géza Röhrig in the lead role. Röhrig was not a famous film star. He was a poet and a teacher, and Nemes chose him because he had the right face, the right presence, and the right understanding of the character. That choice, like many of Nemes’s choices, was brave, and it paid off, because Röhrig’s performance is at the heart of the film’s power.

Son of Saul: A New Way to Film the Holocaust

Son of Saul was released in 2015, and it was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix, the second-highest prize at the festival. The film was praised by critics around the world, and it was called a masterpiece, a new way of filming the Holocaust, and one of the most important films of the year. It later won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film, and it made Nemes famous around the world.

The film’s style is what makes it different. The camera stays very close to Saul, often showing only the back of his head or his face in close-up, while the horror around him is blurred, out of focus, or heard rather than seen. The audience hears screams, shouts, and sounds of violence, but they do not see everything clearly, because Saul himself does not look, or cannot look, at everything around him. That style makes the film feel intense and claustrophobic, as if the audience is trapped inside Saul’s experience, and it avoids turning the Holocaust into a spectacle.

The story is simple and powerful. Saul finds the body of a boy, and he believes the boy is his son, and he tries to find a rabbi to give the boy a proper Jewish burial, even as he continues his forced work in the camp. His quest is almost impossible, and it is also deeply human, because it is about dignity, about faith, and about the need to do one good, decent thing in a place designed to destroy all goodness. The film does not offer easy hope, but it does show that even in Auschwitz, a man can try to be human.

The film’s success was not only about awards. It was about how audiences reacted, how they sat in silence after the film, how they talked about it for days, and how it changed the way many people thought about the Holocaust on film. Nemes had found a new language for an old subject, and that language is now studied in film schools and discussed by filmmakers around the world.

Sunset and a Second Feature

After the huge success of Son of Saul, Nemes faced the difficult task of making a second film, and he chose to make Sunset, released in 2018. The film is set in Budapest in 1913, just before the First World War, and it tells the story of a young woman named Irisz Leiter, who returns to Budapest to work in her family’s hat shop, and who discovers secrets about her family and about the city. The film is beautiful, mysterious and slow, with a camera that follows Irisz closely, in the same way that Son of Saul followed Saul.

Sunset was a very different film from Son of Saul, but it used a similar style: a close camera, a focus on one person’s face, a world that is blurred and chaotic around them, and a story about a person trying to find the truth in a world that is falling apart. The film was shown at the Venice Film Festival, and it was praised for its beauty and its ambition, although it did not reach the same level of fame as Son of Saul. Some critics found it difficult, and some audiences found it confusing, but many film lovers admired its daring and its visual style.

The film showed that Nemes was not a one-film director. He had a style, a vision, and a way of filming that he could use for different stories, in different periods, with different characters. He was interested in history, in memory, and in the way a single person experiences a world that is larger and more dangerous than they are, and Sunset continued that interest, in a new setting, with a new heroine.

Making a second film after an Oscar is never easy, and Nemes knew that. He took his time, he chose a difficult, ambitious project, and he did not try to repeat Son of Saul. That courage is part of his character as a director, and it shows that he is an artist who wants to grow, not only a man who wants to repeat a success.

Style, Sound, and the Human Face

Nemes’s style is built on closeness. His camera stays close to his main character, often over the shoulder or in close-up, and the world around them is out of focus, or in the background, or heard rather than seen. This style makes the audience feel what the character feels, to be inside their experience, rather than watching from a safe distance. It is a style that requires trust, because the audience must be willing to stay with one face for a long time, and to listen to sounds, to silence, and to the small details of a scene.

Sound is also very important in his films. In Son of Saul, the audience hears the camp, the shouts, the machinery, the voices, even when they do not see everything, and that sound creates a world that is terrifying and real. In Sunset, the sound of Budapest in 1913, the streets, the shops, the voices, creates a world that is beautiful and dangerous at the same time. Nemes works closely with sound designers, and he treats sound as carefully as he treats images, because he knows that what we hear can be as powerful as what we see.

His films are also about the human face. He films faces in close-up, for a long time, and he lets the audience read the emotions on those faces: fear, hope, sadness, determination. He does not need big speeches to tell the audience what a character is feeling. He shows it on the face, and he trusts the audience to understand. That trust is a hallmark of his work, and it is why his films feel so intimate, even when their subjects are so large.

Nemes’s style has influenced other directors, and it is now recognised as one of the most distinctive styles in contemporary cinema. He is not a director who makes fast, easy films. He is a director who makes slow, careful, intense films, and who believes that cinema can help us understand history, memory, and the human heart, if we are willing to pay attention.

Legacy: A Young Master of Serious Cinema

László Nemes is still a young director, and his legacy is still being written, but already he has achieved something remarkable. He made one of the most important films about the Holocaust, he won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and the Grand Prix at Cannes, and he did it with a first feature film, made on a small budget, with a non-star actor, in a style that many people said would not work. That is a remarkable achievement, and it has made him one of the most respected directors of his generation.

His legacy is also about how to film history. He showed that a film about the Holocaust does not need to show everything, does not need to be a spectacle, and does not need to offer easy hope. It can stay close to one person, it can show the world through their eyes, and it can trust the audience to feel the horror and the humanity, without being told what to think. That lesson has changed how filmmakers think about historical films, and it will keep influencing them for years.

For young filmmakers, Nemes is an example of how to be brave, how to take on a difficult subject, how to spend years preparing, and how to keep a clear vision, even when others say it cannot be done. He did not make a safe film. He made a hard film, and he made it well, and that is the best kind of success for an artist. His career is a reminder that cinema can still be serious, still be art, and still move people deeply.

Today, Nemes continues to work, to think about new films, and to be a presence in world cinema. His films are shown at festivals, studied in schools, and discussed by audiences who care about history and about film. His story is not finished, and his next films will be watched with great interest, because he has already shown that he is a director who can take on the hardest subjects and make films that last.

Paris, Sound, and the Search for a New Language

László Nemes studied in Paris, and his time in France shaped his films in important ways, because Paris is a city of cinema, of history, and of art, and it gave him a chance to see his own Hungarian story from a distance, to think about it with a fresh eye, and to learn from French directors who had also tried to film history in new ways. In Paris, Nemes watched films, he read, he talked to other young filmmakers, and he thought about how to make a film about the Holocaust that was not like other Holocaust films, that did not use the usual images, the usual music, or the usual wide shots, but that found a new language, a language of closeness, of sound, and of a single human face. That search for a new language is at the heart of Son of Saul, and it began, in part, in Paris, where Nemes had the space to think, to dream, and to plan a film that many people said could not be made.

Sound is a key part of Nemes’s new language, because in Son of Saul, the audience hears the camp before they see it, they hear shouts, machinery, footsteps, and voices, even when the image is blurred or close-up, and that sound creates a world that is terrifying, real, and immersive. Nemes worked closely with sound designers, he recorded real sounds, he mixed them carefully, and he treated sound as seriously as image, because he knew that what we hear can be as powerful as what we see, and that a sound, a shout, a door closing, can tell a story without a single image. That attention to sound is rare in cinema, and it is one of the reasons his films feel so intense, so claustrophobic, and so real, because the audience is not only watching, they are also listening, and listening makes them feel inside the film, not outside it.

Nemes’s search for a new language also involved a new way of using the camera, a camera that stays close, that moves with the character, that does not cut away, and that does not show the horror in a wide, clear way. That camera style was a risk, because it meant that the audience would not see everything, would not understand everything at first, and would have to work to follow the story. Nemes trusted his audience to do that work, and his trust was rewarded, because audiences did follow, did understand, and did feel the film deeply, even if they could not explain it in words. That trust is a hallmark of his work, and it is why his films are studied in film schools, as examples of how to find a new visual language for an old subject.

His time in Paris also gave him a sense of being an outsider, a Hungarian in France, a young director in a big city, and that outsider feeling is visible in his films, where his heroes, Saul and Irisz, are also outsiders, people who do not belong, who are searching for a place, a family, or a truth, in a world that is hostile to them. Nemes understands that outsider feeling from his own life, and he films it with empathy, with closeness, and with a deep respect for the person who is trying to survive in a strange, dangerous place. That empathy is what makes his films human, even when their subjects are historical and terrible, because they are about a person, not only about a period.

In his later work, Nemes has continued to search for a new language, to try new stories, new periods, and new characters, while keeping the same close camera, the same attention to sound, and the same trust in the audience. His films are not easy, they are not commercial, and they are not for everyone, but they are serious, they are art, and they are a reminder that cinema can still find new ways to tell old stories, if a director is brave enough to try, patient enough to prepare, and honest enough to trust the audience to follow. That search is his legacy, and it will keep inspiring young directors who want to find their own language, for their own stories, in their own time.

My Take:

When I think about László Nemes, I think first about courage, because it takes courage to make a film about the Holocaust, and it takes even more courage to make it in a new way. Many directors have tried, and many have made good films, but Nemes did something different. He did not show the horror from a distance, as if it were a history lesson. He put the camera close to one man, Saul, and he made the audience live inside Saul’s experience, with blurred images, with sounds, with fear, and with a desperate need to do one decent thing. I admire that courage, because it could have failed, and if it had failed, it would have been a painful failure. It did not fail. It became a masterpiece, and that is why I respect him so much.

What moves me most about Son of Saul is its humanity, not its horror. The film is about a man who finds a boy’s body and tries to give him a proper burial, and that quest, small, almost impossible, and deeply human, is the heart of the film. In a place designed to destroy all dignity, Saul tries to keep one small piece of it, by burying a child properly. That is a powerful idea, and it tells me that even in the worst places, people can still try to be human, can still try to do good, even if the good is small and the cost is high. I think about that when I feel hopeless, and I remember that a small, decent act can matter, even when the world around it is terrible.

I also think about his style, and how it teaches me to pay attention. Nemes does not show everything clearly. He shows a face, he shows the back of a head, he lets the sound tell the story, and he trusts me to fill in the rest. That trust is brave, because many directors do not trust their audience. They show everything, they explain everything, and they leave nothing to the imagination. Nemes does the opposite. He shows little, and he trusts that little will be enough, because the audience’s imagination, and the audience’s heart, will do the rest. I learn from that. In my own work, I should trust people more, and explain less, and let the feeling do the work.

The fact that Nemes was only in his thirties when he made Son of Saul also stays with me. He was young, he was not famous, he had not made a feature film before, and he took on the hardest subject in cinema. That is a young person’s courage, the courage to believe that you can do something great, even if you have not done it before. I think about young people I know, who are afraid to try something big because they are too young, or too unknown, or too inexperienced. Nemes shows them that youth is not a weakness. It can be a strength, because a young person can see a subject with fresh eyes, and can try a new way of filming it, without being trapped by old habits.

I feel sad when I think about the subject of his film, because the Holocaust is a real horror, and it is painful to think about, painful to watch, and painful to remember. I do not want to make that pain sound small, or to turn it into a lesson that is too easy. The pain is real, and it should be remembered with respect. Nemes treats it with respect, by not turning it into entertainment, by not showing it as a spectacle, and by focusing on one man’s dignity. I respect that respect, and I think it is the right way to remember. We should not look away, but we should also not look for entertainment in suffering. Nemes finds the balance, and that balance is hard to find.

Another thing I admire is his work with Béla Tarr, because it shows humility. Nemes could have tried to make his first film on his own, without learning from a master, but he chose to work as an assistant, to watch, to learn, and to be patient. That humility is a sign of a serious artist, and it paid off, because the lessons he learned from Tarr are visible in his own films, in the long takes, in the closeness, in the patience with time. I learn from that. It is not a weakness to learn from someone else. It is a strength, and it is how art grows, from one generation to the next.

I also think about Sunset, and how hard it must have been to follow Son of Saul. After an Oscar, every new film is compared to the old one, and that comparison is unfair, because no film can be Son of Saul again. Nemes did not try to copy it. He made a different film, about a different time, with a different heroine, and he used the same style in a new way. Some people did not like it, and some found it confusing, but I respect him for trying, because an artist who only repeats a success is not growing. Nemes is growing, and his growth is worth watching, even if not every film is a masterpiece.

If I have a criticism, it is only that Nemes’s films are very intense, and that some viewers may find them too hard to watch, too close, too painful. I understand that, because I also find Son of Saul hard to watch, and I need time after it to think and to breathe. But I also think that some subjects should be hard to watch, because they were hard to live, and to make them easy would be a lie. Nemes does not lie. He makes a hard film about a hard subject, and he asks the audience to stay with it, even when it is painful. That is a brave request, and I think it is the right one.

For a young reader, I would say this. Do not be afraid of a difficult subject. If you care about something, if you have studied it, if you have thought about it deeply, then try to tell its story, even if others say it is too hard, too risky, or too painful. Nemes did that, and he made a film that changed how people think about the Holocaust on screen. Your subject may be different, but the lesson is the same: take the hard path, if the hard path is the true path, and trust that your honesty will find an audience.

In the end, I think László Nemes teaches us that film can be a form of memory, and that memory can be a form of respect. His films remember the people who suffered, they remember the dignity that was taken from them, and they remember the small acts of humanity that survived. That remembering matters, because without it, history can be forgotten, and without history, we can repeat the same mistakes. I am grateful for Nemes’s films, because they help me remember, and they help me feel, and I think they will keep helping new audiences to remember for a long time to come.

I also want to say something about his age and his future, because it gives me hope. Nemes is still young, he is still working, and he has already made a masterpiece. That means his best work may still be ahead of him, and that is an exciting thought. I look forward to his next films, and I hope he keeps taking risks, keeps asking hard questions, and keeps filming with the same closeness, the same patience, and the same respect for the human face. His story is not finished, and I want to see where it goes next.

Finally, I think about Saul’s face, close up, blurred world behind him, and I realise that this image is now part of how I think about the Holocaust, and about history itself. History is not a wide, clear picture. It is a face, close up, trying to survive, trying to do one good thing, in a world that is out of focus and out of control. Nemes gave me that image, and I will keep it. It is a sad image, but it is also a human image, and it is the reason his film matters, and why his story matters, to me and to many others.

I think about Nemes in Paris, and I feel hopeful, because a young director, far from home, in a big city, can find a new way to tell a story, can dream a film that no one else has dreamed, and can make it, even if people say it cannot be done. Nemes dreamed Son of Saul, he planned it for years, he studied, he worked as an assistant, and he kept his vision clear, even when it was hard. That is a lesson for any young person with a dream: keep the vision, do the work, be patient, and trust that the dream, if it is true, will find its audience. I admire that patience, and that belief, because it is easy to give up on a hard dream, and Nemes did not give up.

Another thought that stays with me is about sound, and how Nemes uses it to create a world that is terrifying without showing everything. In Son of Saul, I hear the camp, I hear shouts, I hear machinery, and that hearing makes me feel inside the film, in a way that seeing alone could not do. I learn from that. In my own work, I should pay attention to sound, to silence, to the small noises of life, because they can carry meaning, they can create a feeling, and they can tell a story, even when there are no words. Nemes teaches me to listen, not only to look, and that listening is a form of respect, for the world, for the people in it, and for the audience.

I also think about his outsider feeling, as a Hungarian in Paris, and how it shaped his films about outsiders, about Saul, a Hungarian Jew in Auschwitz, and about Irisz, a young woman in Budapest in 1913, who does not belong, who is searching for her family and her place. That outsider feeling is universal, because we have all felt like outsiders at some time, in a new city, in a new job, in a new country, and Nemes films that feeling with empathy, with closeness, and with a deep understanding of what it is like to be alone in a strange world. I feel less alone when I watch his films, because they show me that being an outsider is not a weakness, but a way of seeing the world clearly, with fresh eyes.

There is also a sadness in thinking about the subject of Son of Saul, because it is a subject that should never be forgotten, and Nemes’s film helps us remember it, in a new way, with a new language, that speaks to a new generation. I feel sad for the people who suffered, and grateful that Nemes found a way to remember them, not as statistics, but as human beings, with faces, with names, with a need for dignity. That remembering is a form of respect, and it is why his film matters, not only as art, but as history, as memory, and as a warning for the future. I hope his film keeps being shown, keeps being discussed, and keeps helping new audiences to remember, for a long time to come.

Finally, I think about Nemes’s future, and I feel excited, because he is still young, he is still searching for a new language, and his best films may still be ahead of him. I look forward to his next films, and I hope he keeps taking risks, keeps asking hard questions, and keeps filming with the same closeness, the same patience, and the same respect for sound, for image, and for the human face. His story is not finished, and his search is not finished, and that is a hopeful thought, because it means that cinema can still surprise us, can still find new ways to tell old stories, and can still move us, if a director is brave enough to try. I will be watching, and I will be listening, for whatever Nemes does next.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was László Nemes born and where is he from?

László Nemes was born on 18 February 1977 in Budapest, Hungary. He is the son of the film director András Jeles, and he studied film in Budapest and in Paris before working as an assistant to Béla Tarr.

What is László Nemes’s most famous film?

His most famous film is Son of Saul, released in 2015, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. The film follows Saul Ausländer, a Hungarian Jew forced to work in Auschwitz, who tries to give a boy a proper burial.

What is special about the style of Son of Saul?

The camera stays very close to Saul, often showing only his face or the back of his head, while the horror around him is blurred or heard rather than seen clearly. This style makes the audience feel inside Saul’s experience, rather than watching the Holocaust from a safe distance.

Who played Saul in Son of Saul?

Saul was played by Géza Röhrig, a Hungarian poet and teacher who was not a famous film star. Nemes chose him because he had the right face and presence for the role, and his performance is at the heart of the film’s power.

What is Sunset about?

Sunset, released in 2018, is set in Budapest in 1913, just before the First World War. It follows a young woman named Irisz Leiter, who returns to Budapest to work in her family’s hat shop and discovers secrets about her family and the city.

Did László Nemes work with Béla Tarr?

Yes, Nemes worked as an assistant to Béla Tarr on the film The Man from London, released in 2007. He learned from Tarr’s slow, careful style, with long takes and a focus on time and the human face, and that influence is visible in his own films.