Israel Embassy holds movie exhibition

THE Embassy of Israel will present 2016 Oscars Best Foreign Film “Son of Saul” in an exhibition called “Beyond Duty,” acknowledging the righteous among the nations and holocaust survivors.

The Embassy of Israel and the Embassy of Hungary, in cooperation with the University of the Philippines Film Institute, will present Son of Saul for free today, March 12 at Cine Adarna, UP Diliman, Quezon City at 7 p.m.

The Embassies will also host two separate by-invitation screening events in partnership with the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) and University of Santo Tomas (UST).

Son of Saul is about Saul Ausländer— a Hungarian member of the Sonderkommando, the group of Jewish prisoners isolated from the camp and forced to assist the Nazis in the machinery of large-scale extermination.

While working in one of the crematoriums, Saul discovers the body of a boy he takes for his son.

As the Sonderkommando plans a rebellion, Saul decides to carry out an impossible task: save the child’s body the mourner’s Kaddish and offer the boy a proper burial.

Son of Saul bagged several awards, including 2015 Cannes Film Festival ‘Son of Saul’s awards include 2015 Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix and 2016 Oscars and Golden Globes Best Foreign Film Grand Prix, 2016 Oscar’s and Golden Globe’s Best Foreign Film.

In addition to the movie screening, the Lyceum of the Philippines Manila will host a forum about the Holocaust, and present the exhibition Beyond Duty.

“As we commemorate a year of jubilees, we are sharing multi-awarded movie Son of Saul to the Filipino audience. We are also presenting an exhibition honoring diplomats from the around the world who saved Jews from Nazi extermination and were recognized by Israel as Righteous Among exhibition, we are also looking back at the Open Doors of the Philippines and the Open Hearts of the Filipinos that saved 1,300 Jewish refugees during the darkest chapter of human history,” Deputy Chief of Mission Yulia Rachinsky-Spivakov said.

Between 2017 and 2018, The Embassy of Israel is commemorating and highlighting the main pillars of Philippine-Israel relations—the 80th anniversary to President Manuel Quezon’s Open Door Policy that saved Jewish refugees from the Holocaust, the 70th anniversary to the Philippines’ vote for the United Nations resolution that led to the creation of the State of Israel, and the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations.