The chilling distance of The Zone of Interest
Image: A24 During World War II, the Germans designated the area surrounding Auschwitz the zone of interest." The dullness of the phrase was intentional, another euphemism as operative as concentration camp."
In Jonathan Glazer's sorta adaptation of Martin Amis' eponymous novel, this self-delusion is on display. Hedwig Hoss (Sandra Huller) runs a stately home. She raises her children, bosses maids around, and tends to the garden. Their house is on a plot beside Auschwitz. Jews are being slaughtered on the other side of the wall.
Whereas Amis' novel fictionalized its characters, Glazer centers it on the real-life Rudolf Hoss (Christian Friedel), the commandant of the camp and a rising star in the Nazi party. A powerful and frightening early scene...