With Schindler’s List, Steven Spielberg made one of the best and most important films about the Holocaust. The 200-minute historical film tells one of the darkest chapters in human history in black and white images. Spielberg recently told The Hollywood Reporter that Schindler’s List is the film he is most proud of in his six-decade career. According to the director, a current work should now build on this quality.
Over 30 years after Schindler’s List: Steven Spielberg is very enthusiastic about Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest
In the same interview, Spielberg also talks about another Holocaust film that… very impressive has: The Zone of Interest, the latest work by the exceptional British director Jonathan Glazer.
Spielberg says:
The Zone of Interest is the best Holocaust film I have seen since my own. He is very good at raising awareness, especially for the Banality of evil.
The Zone of Interest is set in Auschwitz concentration camp and tells about the camp commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel). He lives with his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hülser) and his children in a house with an idyllic garden – right outside the walls of the extermination camp. We never see what goes on behind it.
You can watch the trailer for The Zone of Interest here:
The Zone of Interest – Trailer (German) HD
The Zone of Interest is no ordinary history film. Glazer described his approach with provocative words “Big Brother in the Nazi House”, as The Guardian notes. What he means by that: We’re watching him Everyday life of the Nazi figures. Only the background noise reveals the true horror.
At times the film feels like jumping from one fixed surveillance camera to the next. The Staging is experimental and leans into elements of horror cinema. Essentially, each new image in The Zone of Interest asks us to question exactly what we’re seeing – and what we’re not.
More on the subject of film:
At the 2024 Oscars, The Zone of Interest is nominated in five categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound and Best International Film. The ceremony will take place on Sunday at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. Since then February 29, 2024 you can watch the film in German cinemas.