Jonathan Glazer‘s first film in a decade is also his second film with A24. Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” stars Christian Friedel as Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and Sandra Hüller as his wife and accomplice Hedwig Höss in a loose adaptation of Martin Amis’ 2014 novel. Glazer’s last feature was the 2013 A24 film “Under the Skin.”
In the film, the Höss couple strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden directly adjacent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where Höss was the longest-serving chief commander. But Jews are being exterminated on the other side of the wall as Höss and his wife turn a blind eye to atrocity.
Max Beck, Ralph Herforth, Stephanie Petrowitz, Sascha Maaz, Marie Rosa Tietjen, and Lilli Falk also star. “The Zone of Interest” lead actress Hüller additionally appears in Justine Triet’s buzzy Palme d’Or-winning thriller “Anatomy of a Fall,” out later this year.
To film “The Zone of Interest,” Glazer created 360-degree sets with multiple cameras installed throughout and later edited out in post-production to give the feature an unnerving quality of surveillance. Łukasz Żal, the Oscar-nominated cinematographer of Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Ida” and “Cold War,” was the director of photography, with Paul Watts editing. Longtime Glazer collaborator Mica Levi composed the score.
“The Zone of Interest” screened at the New York Film Festival and Toronto following its Cannes world premiere, where it won the Grand Jury Prize.
David Ehrlich wrote in his IndieWire review, “No Holocaust movie has ever been more committed to illustrating the banality of evil, and that’s because no Holocaust movie has ever been more hell-bent upon ignoring evil altogether.”
“The Zone of Interest” is produced by James Wilson and Ewa Puszcyńska, with Reno Antoniadis, Ollie Madden, David Kimbangi, Tessa Ross of House Productions, and Len Blavatnik and Danny Cohen from Access Entertainment serving as executive producers. The film was co-financed by A24, Film4, Access Entertainment, and the Polish Film Institute.
“The Zone of Interest” will have a limited theatrical release December 15. Check out the trailer below.
