Shortly before this year’s Oscars, the highly anticipated historical drama The Zone of Interest opened in German cinemas. The unusual film about the Holocaust caused a stir in advance. However, you have to see it with your own eyes, to understand what is happening here.
If you missed The Zone of Interest in the cinema or want to immerse yourself in the challenging film experience again, you can watch the film now on WOW with a streaming subscription look. The daring project received great praise from Steven Spielberg, who made the most influential Holocaust film with Schindler’s List.
Why is The Zone of Interest such a special film?
The Zone of Interest revolves around Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), the Commander of the Auschwitz concentration camp. He lives with his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hülser) and his children in a house with an idyllic garden right outside the gates of the extermination camp. We don’t see any of the horror behind it.
You can watch the trailer for The Zone of Interest here:
The Zone of Interest – Trailer (German) HD
Just the smoke from chimneys and one extremely uncomfortable background noise announce the extermination of the Jews that is taking place in the Auschwitz concentration camp. While the extent of the situation is completely clear to us viewers, director Jonathan Glazer (Under the Skin) deals with the routine everyday life in the Höss house.
Spielberg describes it as the banality of evil:
The Zone of Interest is the best Holocaust film I have seen since my own. He is very good at it to raise awarenessespecially for the banality of evil.The Zone of Interest disturbs with its cold images
Glatzer has made a Holocaust film that not only disturbs us with its disturbing perspective on history, but also disturbs us think about film and its form lets. What do we see? What don’t we see? At times The Zone of Interest seems like an experimental horror trip full of alienation.
The Zone of Interest is the radical alternative to Schindler’s List. Where Spielberg gives us many reference points to process the story, Glazer loses himself in the coldness of his images and creates one numbing feeling of apathy. This bold approach won the Oscar for best international film.
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