20 Best Foreign Movies Of 2016

Hungarian director László Nemes’ wartime drama Son of Saul boasts a lot of firsts. Not only is it Nemes’ first feature length outing, it’s also the first Hungarian film to scoop the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. Slightly less ground-breaking but still equally impressive, it also became only the second Hungarian film to be awarded both the Cannes Grand Prix award and Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Set in Auschwitz, the film focuses on Jewish-Hungarian prisoner Saul who works as a sonderkommando (concentration camp prisoners forced to help with the disposal of gas chamber victims) and becomes obsessed with giving a young boy a proper Jewish burial. Starring Hungarian poet and actor Géza Röhrig in his first acting role since the late 1980s, it’s a harrowing and uncompromising reminder of one of the most shameful eras in our very recent history.