Director: Jonathan Glazer 

(2023) UK, US, Poland – Historical drama

Language: German

Synopsis: Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, which swept awards at both the Oscars and the Cannes Film Festival, has generated a wealth of discussion for asking the taboo question: what happens when we tell the history of the Holocaust from the perspective of the perpetrator rather than the victim-survivor? Glazer’s film follows the Höss family as they live a seemingly idyllic life right outside the walls of the concentration camp complex Auschwitz-Birkenau. Though we hear the victims, we can only see the Nazi perpetrators at work and play. Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss, his wife Hedwig, and their children enjoy domestic bliss despite – and also, because of – the atrocities committed on the other side of the garden wall. Glazer’s combination of innovative sound design and lighting (including scenes shot in infrared) invite us to confront the legacy of the Holocaust through radically new ways of looking and hearing.