“Son of Saul,” which is favored to win best foreign language film at the Oscars on Feb. 28, received $50,000 in funding from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Set amid a 1944 prisoner uprising at Auschwitz, “Son of Saul” stood out as a long shot when its producers first applied for funding from the conference, which negotiates restitution for Nazi victims. The film’s director, László Nemes, had no experience with feature films; its lead actor hadn’t been on a film set in 15 years; and its script included long, silent and out-of-focus shots.
The matter was subject to “serious internal debate,” said Greg Schneider, vice president of the conference. “It was a risk that paid off.” Ticket sales for the Golden Globe-winning Hungarian film are north of $2 million, already exceeding the film’s $1.6 million budget.
“People all over the world are realizing we’re facing the last generation of Holocaust survivors,” Schneider said, “so we’re in a race against time to cling to the experiences of the survivors still amongst us.”
Since 2008, the organization has devoted a small portion of its budget to funding educational Holocaust films and receives funding requests for about 50 films a year.
“Son of Saul” uses an accurate backdrop in telling the story of Saul Auslander, a member of the Sonderkommando, a group of Jews whom the Germans forced to work in the gas chambers.
The funding covered less than 4 percent of the film’s total production costs, but “came in the final stages of production when we were really lacking money,” said Gabor Sipos, the film’s producer. — jta