László Nemes' 'Andor Hirsch' Fails to Deliver Emotional Impact

László Nemes' third film, 'Andor Hirsch', premieres to critical disappointment. The historical drama follows Andor (Barabás Bojtorján), a Hungarian-Jewish half-orphan raised in 1950s Budapest by his mother (Andrea Waskovics), believing his father died in the Holocaust. The narrative unravels when a coarse man (Grégory Gadebois) claims to have hidden the mother from Nazis and to be Andor's father. Despite potential for a powerful story about a broken father-son relationship and a lost generation crushed by Nazi atrocities and communist dictatorship, the film gets lost in hyperrealistic detail and sepia spectacle. After Nemes' acclaimed 'Son of Saul', which explored resistance in a Nazi extermination camp, 'Andor Hirsch' raises the question of its purpose. The film succumbs to the auteur cinema fallacy that significance arises from oppressive stillness and dialogue arranged around art pauses. Its meaningless symbolism culminates after 132 tedious minutes with a Star of David, prompting a desire to hide like young Andor.