Recontextualizing Son of Saul: Masculinity in Totalitarian Spaces in Hungarian Film History
As a result of its radical approach to the topic of the Holocaust, as well as due to the long list of prestigious prizes it won, Son of Saul (Saul fia, 2015, directed by László Nemes Jeles) has put the relation between Eastern European societies and totalitarianism in the centre of public and academ...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Scientia Publishing House
2022-07-01
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| Series: | Acta Universitatis Sapientiae: Film and Media Studies |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.2478/ausfm-2022-0005 |
| _version_ | 1827165870361673728 |
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| author | Kalmár György |
| author_facet | Kalmár György |
| author_sort | Kalmár György |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | As a result of its radical approach to the topic of the Holocaust, as well as due to the long list of prestigious prizes it won, Son of Saul (Saul fia, 2015, directed by László Nemes Jeles) has put the relation between Eastern European societies and totalitarianism in the centre of public and academic discourse. Though most reviews and articles placed the film in the history of Holocaust-representations, this is not the only context in which the film can be understood. In the present article I argue that Son of Saul can also be read outside (or at least at a distance from) the context of a Holocaust-film, as it also belongs to another, quite different and internationally much less known local cinematic canon. There is an unclaimed heritage behind Nemes Jeles’s controversial masterpiece, a trend in Hungarian cinema that explores the crisis of masculinity in totalitarian political regimes, thereby performing an allegorical critique of modernity and modern subjectivity. My recontextualization of Nemes Jeles’s work indicates the ways it is influenced by a local, Eastern European filmmaking tradition (which includes the work of his own father, the filmmaker András Jeles as well), and is supported by three interrelated conceptual focus points: a post-Foucauldian understanding of cultural and cinematic space, an awareness of the workings of modern cinematic allegory, and finally the use of male protagonists as prime sites for the inscription of social crisis and historical trauma. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T13:39:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b33eb59528fe4e77b112b869d88c6ccc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2066-7779 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-03-21T01:39:22Z |
| publishDate | 2022-07-01 |
| publisher | Scientia Publishing House |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Acta Universitatis Sapientiae: Film and Media Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-b33eb59528fe4e77b112b869d88c6ccc2024-08-02T23:57:45ZengScientia Publishing HouseActa Universitatis Sapientiae: Film and Media Studies2066-77792022-07-0121112314510.2478/ausfm-2022-0005Recontextualizing Son of Saul: Masculinity in Totalitarian Spaces in Hungarian Film HistoryKalmár György0University of Debrecen (Hungary)As a result of its radical approach to the topic of the Holocaust, as well as due to the long list of prestigious prizes it won, Son of Saul (Saul fia, 2015, directed by László Nemes Jeles) has put the relation between Eastern European societies and totalitarianism in the centre of public and academic discourse. Though most reviews and articles placed the film in the history of Holocaust-representations, this is not the only context in which the film can be understood. In the present article I argue that Son of Saul can also be read outside (or at least at a distance from) the context of a Holocaust-film, as it also belongs to another, quite different and internationally much less known local cinematic canon. There is an unclaimed heritage behind Nemes Jeles’s controversial masterpiece, a trend in Hungarian cinema that explores the crisis of masculinity in totalitarian political regimes, thereby performing an allegorical critique of modernity and modern subjectivity. My recontextualization of Nemes Jeles’s work indicates the ways it is influenced by a local, Eastern European filmmaking tradition (which includes the work of his own father, the filmmaker András Jeles as well), and is supported by three interrelated conceptual focus points: a post-Foucauldian understanding of cultural and cinematic space, an awareness of the workings of modern cinematic allegory, and finally the use of male protagonists as prime sites for the inscription of social crisis and historical trauma.https://doi.org/10.2478/ausfm-2022-0005son of saulhungarian cinematotalitarianismmasculinityallegory |
| spellingShingle | Kalmár György Recontextualizing Son of Saul: Masculinity in Totalitarian Spaces in Hungarian Film History Acta Universitatis Sapientiae: Film and Media Studies son of saul hungarian cinema totalitarianism masculinity allegory |
| title | Recontextualizing Son of Saul: Masculinity in Totalitarian Spaces in Hungarian Film History |
| title_full | Recontextualizing Son of Saul: Masculinity in Totalitarian Spaces in Hungarian Film History |
| title_fullStr | Recontextualizing Son of Saul: Masculinity in Totalitarian Spaces in Hungarian Film History |
| title_full_unstemmed | Recontextualizing Son of Saul: Masculinity in Totalitarian Spaces in Hungarian Film History |
| title_short | Recontextualizing Son of Saul: Masculinity in Totalitarian Spaces in Hungarian Film History |
| title_sort | recontextualizing son of saul masculinity in totalitarian spaces in hungarian film history |
| topic | son of saul hungarian cinema totalitarianism masculinity allegory |
| url | https://doi.org/10.2478/ausfm-2022-0005 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT kalmargyorgy recontextualizingsonofsaulmasculinityintotalitarianspacesinhungarianfilmhistory |