Introduction

The Zone of Interest is a 2023 historical drama film written and directed by Jonathan Glazer, co-produced between the United Kingdom and Poland.

The story is loosely based on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis. Starring German actors Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller as the Nazi commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig, it focuses on the pair as they strive to build a dream life for their family in a home next to the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp.

Outline (Film)

In 1943 Rudolf Höss, commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, lives with his wife Hedwig and their five children in an idyllic home next to the camp. Höss takes the children out to swim and fish, and Hedwig spends time tending the garden. Slaves handle chores and the prisoners’ belongings are given to the family. Beyond the garden wall, gunshots, shouting, and sounds of trains and furnaces are audible.

Höss approves the design of a new crematorium created by Topf and Sons. One day, after noticing human remains in the river, he gets his children out of the water and sends a coded note to camp personnel, chastising them for their carelessness. At night, a Polish girl sneaks out and hides food at the prisoners’ work sites for them to find and eat.

Höss receives word that he is being promoted to deputy inspector of concentration camps and must move to Oranienburg, near Berlin. He fruitlessly objects, and withholds the news from Hedwig for several days. Hedwig asks him to convince his superiors to let her and the children remain in their home; the request is approved. Before Höss moves out, a woman comes to his office and prepares herself for sex. Hedwig’s mother comes to stay, but departs after seeing the burning crematorium at night. She leaves a note that upsets Hedwig.

Months after arriving in Berlin, in recognition of his work, Höss is tasked by Oswald Pohl with heading an operation named after him that will transport 700,000 Hungarian Jews to work or be killed. This allows him to move back to Auschwitz and reunite with his family. He vacantly attends a party organised by the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office. Afterwards, he tells Hedwig over the phone that he spent his time at the party thinking about the most efficient way to gas the attendees.

As Höss leaves his Berlin office and descends a stairway, he stops and retches repeatedly and stares into the darkness of the building corridors. In the present day, a group of janitors clean the Auschwitz–Birkenau State Museum. Back in 1943, Höss proceeds downstairs.

Outline (Book)

The Zone of Interest is the fourteenth novel by the English author Martin Amis, published in 2014. Set in Auschwitz, it tells the story of a Nazi officer who has become enamoured of the camp commandant’s wife. The story is conveyed by three narrators: Angelus Thomsen, the officer; Paul Doll, the commandant; and Szmul Zacharias, a Jewish Sonderkommando.

The novel begins in August 1942, with Thomsen’s first sight of Hannah Doll, wife of Paul Doll, the camp’s commandant (a fictionalised version of Rudolf Höss). He is immediately intrigued and initiates a few encounters with her. In time their relationship becomes more intimate, even though it remains unfulfilled. Despite their attempts at discretion, Paul Doll’s suspicions are raised. He has her followed by one of the camp’s prisoners, and is informed by him that they did indeed make two exchanges of letters. While spying on Hannah in the bathroom (as he does regularly), Paul watches her read the letter from Thomsen secretly and rather excitedly, before destroying it. From that point onward, his wife becomes increasingly contemptuous of him, viciously taunting him in private, and embarrassing him in public. Paul decides to assign Szmul, a long-serving member of the Sonderkommando, to the murder of his wife. He does so by threatening to capture Szmul’s wife, Shulamith. The murder is scheduled to take place on 30 April 1943 – at Walpurgisnacht.

The narrative then skips a few years, to the story’s aftermath. In September 1948, Thomsen attempts to find Hannah, who has disappeared. He finds her at Rosenheim, where she met her husband. He is told what happened at Walpurgisnacht: at the moment Szmul was supposed to murder Hannah, he instead pointed the weapon on himself, and revealed the truth to her. Paul Doll then shot him before he could commit suicide. Thomsen asks Hannah if they could still meet each other. She tells him that while in the concentration camp he was to her a figure for what was sane and decent, outside the camp he simply reminded her of her past life’s insanity. Despondently, he withdraws and leaves her.

Cast

• Christian Friedel as Rudolf Höss
• Sandra Hüller as Hedwig Höss
• Johann Karthaus as Claus Höss
• Luis Noah Witte as Hans Höss
• Nele Ahrensmeier as Inge-Brigit Höss
• Lilli Falk as Heidetraut Höss
• Anastazja Drobniak, Cecylia Pekala and Kalman Wilson as Annegret Höss
• Medusa Knopf as Elfryda
• Maximilian Beck as Schwarzer
• Andrey Isaev as Bronek
• Stephanie Petrowitz as Sophie Stippel
• Martyna Poznanski as Marta
• Zuzanna Kobiela as Aniela
• Marie Rosa Tietjen as Hedwig’s friend
• Imogen Kogge as Hedwig’s mother
• Ralph Herforth as Oswald Pohl
• Daniel Holzberg as Gerhard Maurer
• Freya Kreutzkam as Eleonore Pohl
• Sascha Maaz as Arthur Liebehenschel

Production

Development

The Zone of Interest was 10 years in the making. After completing Under the Skin, Glazer became intrigued by the then not-yet-published Martin Amis novel The Zone of Interest. He optioned the novel after reading it. Paul and Hannah Doll, the novel’s two main characters, were loosely based on Rudolf Höss, the longest-serving commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, and his wife Hedwig. Glazer opted to use the historical figures instead and conducted two years of extensive research into the Hösses. He made several visits to Auschwitz and was profoundly affected by the sight of the Höss residence. He collaborated with the Auschwitz Museum and other organisations, and obtained special permission to access the archives, where he examined testimonies provided by survivors and individuals who had been employed in the Höss household. By piecing together these testimonies, Glazer gradually constructed a detailed portrayal of the individuals connected to the events. He also consulted historian Timothy Snyder’s 2015 book Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning during his research.

Glazer confirmed development of the project in 2019, with A24, Film4, Access Entertainment and House Productions co-financing and producing. Friedel first met Glazer and producer Jim Wilson in London in 2019 for the role of Rudolf Höss. Although daunted by Glazer and Wilson’s description of their film project, Friedel felt compelled too. Friedel, who had first met Hüller in 2013 while acting together in the historical drama Amour Fou, recommended her for the role of Rudolf’s wife Hedwig. Hüller was first sent an excerpt of the script, an argument between Rudolf and Hedwig presented out of context, before learning the project’s nature as a film about the Holocaust. Although she had resolved never to play a Nazi, Hüller was convinced after reading the full script and meeting with Glazer, believing that he shared and addressed her concerns about how to properly depict Nazism on screen. Hüller’s own dog, a black Weimeraner, plays Dilla, the Höss family dog in the film.

The young Polish girl in the film is inspired by a woman named Alexandria, whom Glazer met during his research. As a 12-year-old member of the Polish resistance, she used to cycle to the camp to leave apples for the starving prisoners. As in the film, she discovered a piece of music written by a prisoner. The prisoner, named Joseph Wulf, survived the camp and was one of the first people to document the atrocities of the Holocaust, a cause to which he dedicated his life. Alexandria was 90 years old when she met Glazer and died shortly after. The bike the film uses and the dress the actress wears both belonged to her.

Filming

The original Höss house has been a private residence since the end of the war. Production designer Chris Oddy spent several months converting a derelict home beyond the camp wall into a replica of the Höss residence, and started planting the garden in April 2021 so that it would be in bloom when filming began. Principal photography began in Auschwitz in summer 2021 and lasted approximately 55 days. Additional filming took place in Jelenia Góra in January 2022.

The film was shot on Sony Venice digital cameras equipped with Leica lenses. Glazer and cinematographer Łukasz Żal embedded up to 10 cameras in and around the house and kept them running simultaneously, with no crew on set. The approach, which Glazer dubbed “Big Brother in the Nazi house”, allowed the actors to improvise and experiment extensively during filming. Glazer and Żal aimed for a modern look and did not wish to “aesthetize” Auschwitz. As a result, only practical and natural lighting was used.

Glazer did not want the atrocities occurring inside the camp to be seen, only heard. He described the film’s sound as “the other film” and “arguably, the film”. To that end, sound designer Johnnie Burn compiled a 600-page document containing relevant events at Auschwitz, testimonies from witnesses, and a large map of the camp so that the distance and echoes of the sounds could be properly determined. He spent a year building a sound library before filming began, which included sounds of manufacturing machinery, crematoria, furnaces, boots, period-accurate gunfire and human sounds of pain. He continued building the library well into the shoot and post-production. As many of the new arrivals at Auschwitz at the time were French, Burn sourced their voices from protests and riots in Paris in 2022. The sounds of drunken Auschwitz guards were sourced at the Reeperbahn in Hamburg.

English musician Mica Levi wrote a score for the film, most of which was ultimately cut as Glazer and Burn did not want to have the film sweetened or dramatized by it. The music Levi wrote for the prologue remained, as did soundscapes created for the black-and-white sequences involving the Polish girl, and a sound collage for the epilogue.

Release

The Zone of Interest was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 19 May 2023, and received a six-minute standing ovation. At the festival, the film won the Grand Prix, the Cannes Soundtrack Award, and the FIPRESCI Prize.

The North American premiere occurred on 01 September 2023, at the 50th Telluride Film Festival. It was also screened at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. In the United States, after being delayed from its initial release date of 08 December, it was given a limited theatrical release on 15 December 2023 It was released in the United Kingdom on 2 February 2024, and also released in Poland a week later on 09 February 2024.

The film was released for digital platforms on 20 February 2024.

Box Office

As of 10 March 2024, The Zone of Interest has grossed $8.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $16 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $24.2 million.

In its opening weekend in the United States, the film made $124,000 from four theatres. Following its five Oscar nominations, it expanded from 215 theatres to 333 in its seventh week of release and made $1.08 million, an increase of 141% from the previous weekend, and a running total of $3 million.

Trivia

• The Zone of Interest premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on 19 May 2023 to acclaim, winning both the Grand Prix and FIPRESCI Prize, and was named one of the top-five international films of 2023 by the National Board of Review.
• It won three BAFTAs (including Film not in the English Language), two Academy Awards (Best International Feature and Best Sound), and three Golden Globe Awards.

Production & Filming Details

• Director(s):
  • Jonathan Glazer
• Producer(s):
  • Reno Antoniades … executive producer
  • Daniel Battsek … executive producer
  • Len Blavatnik … executive producer
  • Danny Cohen … executive producer
  • Ke’Lonn Darnell … executive producer
  • Bugs Hartley … co-producer
  • David Kimbangi … executive producer
  • Ollie Madden … executive producer
  • Magdalena Malisz … line producer
  • Ewa Puszczynska … producer
  • Bartek Rainski … co-producer
  • Tessa Ross … executive producer
  • James Wilson … producer
• Writer(s):
  • Jonathan Glazer … (written by)
  • Martin Amis … (based on the novel by)
• Music:
  • Mica Levi
• Cinematography:
  • Lukasz Zal
• Editor(s):
  • Paul Watts
• Production:
  • A24 (presents)
  • Access Entertainment (presents)
  • Film4 (presents)
  • JW Films
  • Extreme Emotions
  • House Productions (co-production)
  • Polski Instytut Sztuki Filmowej (Polish Film Institute, in association with)
  • Silesian Film Fund (financing)
• Distributor(s):
  • A24 (United States, 2023)(theatrical)
  • A24 (United Kingdom, 2024)(theatrical)
  • Bac Films (France, 2024)(theatrical)
  • Cinéart (Belgium, 2024)(theatrical)
  • Cinéart (Netherlands, 2024)(theatrical)
  • Diamond Films (Argentina, 2024)(theatrical)
  • Diamond Films (Brazil, 2024)(theatrical)
  • Diamond Films (Mexico, 2024)(theatrical)
  • Elástica Films (Spain, 2024)(theatrical)
  • Empire Entertainment (South Africa, 2024)(theatrical)
  • Filmcoopie (Switzerland, 2024)(theatrical)
  • Gutek Film (Poland, 2024)(theatrical)
  • Leonine Distribution (Germany, 2024)(theatrical)
  • Madman Entertainment (Australia, 2024)(theatrical)
  • Madman Films (New Zealand, 2024)(theatrical)
  • Spentzos Films (Greece, 2023)(theatrical)
  • Alambique Filmes (Portugal, 2024)
  • Blaq Out (France, 2024)(Blu-ray)
  • Blaq Out (France, 2024)(DVD)
  • Blaq Out (France, 2024)(Ultra HD Blu-ray)
  • Cinemax (World-wide, 2023)(VOD, video)
  • Leonine Distribution (Germany, 2024)(Blu-ray)
  • Leonine Distribution (Germany, 2024)(DVD)
  • Madman Entertainment (Australia, 2024)(Blu-ray)
  • Madman Entertainment (Australia, 2024)(DVD)
  • Max (World-wide, 2023)(VOD, video)
  • Wanda Visión (Spain, 2024)
• Release Date: 19 May 2023 (Cannes Film Festival).
• Running time:
• Rating: 12A.
• Country: US.
• Language: English.

Video Clip(s)