The Zone of Interest: the A24 film with Sandra Hüller unveils its trailer
Filmed in Auschwitz, this drama was a psychological challenge for the film team.
In 1943, the commander of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss lived with his wife Hedwig and their five children in a house which suggests an idyllic setting despite the proximity to the camp. Children swim and fish, the home is tended by servants, while gunfire beyond the wall rings out. Screams, train noises, all these elements dissonant with the laughter of the children of the Höss family. One day, the dream confronts the nightmare, when the commander and father of the family notices human remains in the river where the children are playing.
To prepare the film, Jonathan Glazer (Under the Skin And Sexy Beast) spent three years exploring various resources at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Memorial and Museum. Shot at Auschwitz, the film was a psychological challenge for Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a fall) And Christian Friedel (Babylon Berlin) in the approach to their character – namely, how to inject humanity into such a monstrous context.
The “area of interest” was the term mostly used by the SS to describe the 40 square kilometer perimeter surrounding the Auschwitz concentration camp. The British novelist Martin Amis had used the expression for the title of his novel, addressing life around and inside the camp.
The Area of Interest won the Grand Prize at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival and will be released on January 31, 2024 in France.
