The Zone of Interest
- 105m
- Directed by Jonathan Glazer
- Starring Sandra Hüller, Christian Friedel and Freya Kreutzkam
- Cert 12A
“Provocative in a deeply intelligent way.” ★★★★★ Time Out
“A landmark movie, hugely important, that’s unafraid of difficult ideas.” ★★★★★ The Times
The Zone of Interest is about building a good life for you and your family, working hard and creating a beautiful home. Yet this idyll of family life happens next to one of humanity’s worst atrocities: the concentration camps of Auschwitz. The true horrors are never glimpsed; instead, we see the camp commander (Christian Friedel) and his wife (Sandra Hüller, Toni Erdmann, Anatomy of a Fall), as we are confronted by the ability to normalise genocide.
Adapting Martin Amis’s novel, Jonathan Glazer moves the material into a form only possible via cinema. Glazer reinvents his methods with each new film (from Sexy Beast to Under the Skin), but The Zone of Interest feels monumental and like a tectonic shift in how the Holocaust is seen on screen. The year’s best reviewed film is one to be reckoned with by all.