The haunting drama won three BAFTAs and two Academy Awards, and it’s loosely based on true events.
If you’re looking for a quiet weekend in with a good film, and you’re drawn to watch a chilling yet unforgettable tale set during World War 2, then there’s one movie that should be on your watchlist.
The Zone of Interest, written and directed by Jonathan Glazer, was released back in 2023 and has since won three BAFTAs and two Academy Awards. This isn’t your typical blood-soaked war film; instead, it creates an unsettling aura that lingers long after the credits roll.
The plot centres around German Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig, living with their family in a villa within the “Zone of Interest”, adjacent to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Höss, portrayed by Christian Friedel, shares the picturesque home with Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) and their five children, presenting an image of idyllic family life. The children spend their days frolicking outdoors, while Hedwig tends the huge garden.
While the audience never actually sees the horrors unfolding beyond the garden fence, the film’s soundtrack tells its own chilling tale. Intermittent screams, gunshots and the rumble of trains serve as stark reminders of the grim reality for the family’s existence at this location, reports the Express.
The parents simply want to create the perfect life for their young family, but this proves increasingly challenging with Höss overseeing the murder of thousands of people week after week. Maybe the most disturbing aspect of this film is the false sense of normality and how abhorrent behaviour can be swept under the rug.
From Hedwig donning stolen clothes belonging to prisoners to Höss signing off on additional crematoriums being built, the family appear so normal – and apparently blind to reality.
The film is loosely based on Martin Amis’s 2014 novel of the same name, which itself was partly inspired by actual events. During the 2024 awards season, it secured multiple accolades, including an Oscar for Best Sound, thanks to its unsettling, spine-chilling soundtrack.
The Guardian hailed it as an ‘unforgettable drama’ and a ‘brutal masterpiece’. Meanwhile, film review platform Roger Ebert heaped praise on it, writing: “It’s a disturbing work, guided by a discomforting sense of immaculateness that chills the viewer. It is the sanitation the film performs, which speaks to the now, in a way few Holocaust films have done before.”
One film fan on Rotten Tomatoes said, “As difficult as the story is, this is a beautifully conceived and executed film. It will stay with me, in the best sense, for a long while.”
The Zone of Interest is available to stream free on Channel 4 now.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
