A24 almost never, ever misses, and this holiday season, they’re bringing us the tragic-but-jacked wrestling-dynasty story of The Iron Claw and preparing us for next year when Kristen Stewart will romance a bodybuilder in Love Lies Bleeding. As well, the production and distribution house has unfurled a particularly unsettling movie, the Auschwitz-focused drama Zone Of Interest, that is currently beginning to hit selected theaters to rattle audiences.
The film hails from Under The Skin director Jonathan Glazer and paints a haunting portrait, so let’s talk details:
Plot
The film follows Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss, who was convicted of war crimes following the end of WWII. He committed unspeakable horrors, essentially overseeing mass murder of the Jewish people, but also apparently didn’t want to commute too far to do so. As the film’s synopsis succinctly describes, he “tries to build a dream life for his family near the Auschwitz concentration camp.”
What transpires involves a disturbingly lavish setup, wherein Höss, his wife, and children live a life of luxury, practically next door to agonizing screams and the stench of death. Christian Friede portrays the central commander and previously told Vogue “felt the responsibility towards the victims every day. And when I visited Auschwitz for the first time and understood the dimension of the crime, I felt the responsibility. It’s so… huge.” That feeling must have been particularly intense given that Höss tasked himself with “efficiency” in running the camp, which is as an exceedingly brutal approach as it sounds.
Still, Höss appreciated the shooting style of Glazer on the film while capturing the family’s everyday existence. “For me, as an actor, it was a luxury situation because we had no technical interruptions,” he told Gold Derby. “And every scene outside and inside were shot with five to ten cameras at the same time simultaneously, sometimes in different rooms at the same time.”
Cast
As mentioned already, the film stars Friede as Höss and, and Sandra Hüller portrays his wife, Hedwig. The cast also includes Medusa Knopf, Maximilian Beck, Daniel Holzberg, Sascha Maaz, Ralph Herforth, and Wolfgang Lampl. The story is based upon Martin Amis’ same-named novel with a screenplay from Glazer.
Release Date
The film began to arrive in selected theaters on December 15.
Trailer
Zone Of Interest will hopefully be playing somewhere near you.